My Not so Little Monster
by winnieeo
Summary: Four friends, who found themselves separated after high school, somehow find their way back together after four years of being apart. How did they each turn out and what happened between them that they became separated to begin with? Will feature Yuzan/OC in Part 2 of the story. Cover image from the anime.
1. Prologue

"Mitty! Did you hear back from that uni?" Natsume asked as she ran after Shizuku on her way to Haru's.

It was the last day of classes, ever, and they would not see each other again until graduation. Shizuku had been nervously awaiting an acceptance letter from the University of Tokyo, her number one choice, and the only university she had not heard back from yet.

"Not yet, Natsume. Why don't you worry about your own acceptance letters," she replied coldly. She didn't want to be cold toward Natsume but she was too upset about not having heard anything from the University of Tokyo yet that she could not be bothered with Natsume's usual chipper self.

"Oh, well... I didn't really get any..."

"You did apply, didn't you?"

"Yeah... I just," she started but then began to cry. "I got rejected from all of them!"

Shizuku looked up at her friend, sympathetic. Rejection was hard. And although Shizuku, of course, hadn't received a single rejection letter from a uni, she knew of rejection.

* * *

**_Three Days Eariler_**

"Haru, you seriously didn't apply to _any_ universities?"

"Nope. I'm moving to San Diego."

"San Diego? As in America?" She looked at him in disbelief. Why would he choose to go there out of all places? It was so... far away. And, although she had prepared herself since Sophomore year for this moment, she never imagined that Haru would choose to move so far. She had grown accustomed to him always being with her and, despite everything she had done to prepare for him someday leaving, she never imagined how difficult this day would actually be.

"Yeah. I had Natsume help me do some research on the internet and, apparently, San Diego is the best place for Tuna Fishing."

"You're not serious about that, are you?" _It's such a waste of talent_, she added to herself.

"Shizuku, you said you'd wait for me," he replied, a bit concerned. _Was she, after all this time, having second doubts?_

She looked over at him and then down at the floor. She would, of course, wait for him. _But what if he doesn't come back? What if he decides he loves San Diego more than he loves me?_

She shook the thoughts from her head. She knew already that she was going to wait for him as long as it took. There was no one in the world who knew her like he did, who _loved_ her like he did. She would wait forever if she had to.

_But Haru would come back, right?_ She thought to herself. _He would, like he always had._

She had already convinced herself, mentally at least, that the distance would be good for them. With him gone, she could focus on her studies while at uni and she could become rich so that her mother could stop working and return home. That was all she wanted, right?

Maybe not.

_It's fine__,_ she told herself._ It's going to be fine._

She had repeated those words to herself for years now. But still there was a lingering fear in her heart that he would not come back, and that it would not be fine.

She looked up at him. He was smiling.

Why was he always smiling when she felt the worse inside? Yet there was something about his smile that made her feel at ease.

"Of course, I will wait for you Haru," she replied.

"Then I will definitely come back."

She forced a smile, accepting the fact that Haru would move on from her life despite his promise to come back. She had to prepare herself for the worse possible situation. Perhaps he was meant to be with her for only a while. Perhaps what he had already given her was more than what she ever could have asked for. It was, in fact, more than what most people ever get.

* * *

And she hadn't seen him since.

"Where did Haru go this time?" Sasayan asked as the two girls entered the batting cages.

"He said he was going away for a while. He promised he'd be back in a few days," Shizuku replied.

"How long ago was that?"

"Three days ago."

"Well, that's a few days isn't it?" Natsume asked.

"Yeah, but you know Haru, he's doing his own thing."

"Okay." They had already accepted this about Haru. He was always doing his own thing, a wild child still till this day.

"Hey Sasayan, did that scholarship work out for you?" Shizuku asked.

"Oh..." he replied. It did but he was reluctant to admit it because it meant that he was going to be moving very far away. "Yeah."

"It did?!" Natsume replied. She was filled with both joy and sadness at the same time. "That's wonderful! I'm really happy for you."

"How could you be so happy when it means that Sasayan is going to be _very_ far away?!" Shizuku snapped. "Plus, you haven't received a single letter yet, what are you going to do with your life Natsume!?"

They stared at her, confused. Why was she yelling at them?

"Oh, Mitty... is something wrong?"

"No," she lied. "I'm going home first." She took her bag and walked home, alone.

She had to get used to it, being alone that is, now that Haru and Sasayan were both going to be very far away. She wondered if Natsume would go far away as well? She needed to prepare for the worse, she told herself again. She must prepare for all of them leaving her.

She opened her gate and walked toward her door. Suddenly, she felt bad for yelling at her friends. She thought of turning around to go apologize but, in the corner of her eye, she saw a large white envelope.

It was what she was waiting for.

She had gotten in.

* * *

And that was four years ago.


	2. Part 1 - Chapter 1 - New York, NY

**Oops, I just realized that I had accidentally deleted this chapter. I really should really keep back-ups but I don't, so it's been re-written.**

* * *

Shizuku sat at her desk and stared down at the materials in front of her. It was her first day of training at her new job.

She had done it. She had completed university and secured a job at a place where she could make enough money so that her mother could stop working and her brother would have whatever he needed so that he could focus on school and go to a good uni.

She smiled to herself as she thought about her family.

Her family was the most important thing to her, besides school and now work. And she was willing to do whatever she needed to in order to provide for them.

"Shizuku," a familiar voice called out to her, pulling her from her thoughts.

She looked over at the seat next to her and saw that it was Yamaken.

"Yamaken," she replied plainly.

He smiled. He could not believe how different she looked and was a little surprised at himself for even recognizing her. She was, in fact, no longer in her schoolgirl uniform and pigtails. Instead, she was in a suit and had her hair down with her bangs neatly swept to one side. It even looked as if she had put on some light make-up that morning. Plus, she had put on a bit of weight, filling out in, what Yamaken could not deny being, a good way.

Her new job was important to her and she knew that appearances mattered, a least a little. And although she was not personally happy about the weight gain, she could tell by the way Yamaken was looking at her that it was not as bad as she thought.

"What are you smiling about?" she asked, annoyed.

"Nothing," he replied, quickly peeling his eyes away from her body. "I would say that I'm surprised to see you here, but I'm not," he added lightly.

Ignoring him, she flipped through the training materials to see what they were going to cover. It was obvious to him that, despite being apart for so many years, her disinterest in him had not changed. Although, he supposed, there was very little that she was ever particularly interested in besides school, work, and Haru.

"Welcome to your first day of training," a man at the front of the room said as he began the day with introductions. The training class consisted of roughly thirty new graduates, all from the top universities in the world, most of them men.

After a long day of training, Yamaken invited Shizuku to go for dinner and drinks with the rest of the trainees.

"No thank you, I don't drink," she replied as she packed her bags to go home and study. They had covered a lot of material that day and would cover a lot more in the weeks to come, so she wanted to get a head start on all the material.

"Come on, it's part of the industry. You need to socialize, at least a little," he insisted.

Although she was obviously not interested in him, he felt that them working at the same company after being separated for four years during college was, perhaps, fate. And he was going to do whatever it took for her to realize it.

"I said, 'no.' Maybe tomorrow," she said in an attempt to make him go away.

"Okay. How about just dinner then?" He was clearly not going to leave her alone so easily. "You have to eat, don't you? Plus, I'm guessing this is your first time in New York. Don't you want to see the city a little?"

She thought about it for a while. She did want to see the city but would very much prefer to see it alone.

"There's a Yakitori place in St. Marks," he suggested. "You like that stuff right?"

_Yakitori?_ she thought to herself. She was pretty neutral about Yakitori, but it reminded her of Haru.

"Fine," she relented, wishing that it was Haru rather than Yamaken who was standing in front of her at the moment.

She thought about Haru and wished that he was there. She had not seen him since he left for San Diego and she wondered how he was doing. _Perhaps I can make a trip to San Diego after training before I need to start working to go and see Haru,_ she thought to herself. But she had no idea how she would find him. For all she knew, he could be on a boat in middle of the Pacific Ocean, fishing.

And he probably was.

Because of Yamaken's poor sense of direction, he hailed a cab that took them directly to the Yakitori place.

He went into the small shop and ordered for the both of them. Then, he sat down next to Shizuku on the bench outside of the shop to eat.

"So you're going to be working in New York as well?" he asked, hoping she was.

"No. I'll be working in London," she replied.

"That's too bad. Your friends are here."

"My friends?" She had no idea who Yamaken was talking about. She did not know anyone who lived in New York, besides Yamaken she supposed.

"Yeah. Natsume and Sasayan. I saw them yesterday at Del Posto."

"Del Posto?"

"Shizuku, you have got to get out more," he insisted.

His arrogance annoyed her to no end. She had just landed in New York the night before and barely had enough time to get to her hotel, sleep, and then get ready for training this morning.

"I just got in last night," she replied, keeping the rest of her thoughts to herself.

He could tell that she was annoyed by his comment but he did not care. He was sure that, if given enough time, she would warm up to him. And they had the next six weeks together in New York, so that was a good amount of time for him to convince her that he was not so bad.

They sat in silence for a while.

"How are they?" Shizuku finally asked, curious about Natsume and Sasayan. She wondered how the two of them ended up in New York together and hoped that she would somehow bump into them as well.

"They seem to be doing really well."

"Oh," was all that Shizuku could say in response. Then, having finished her Yakitori, she stood up to go home. "I should head out."

Yamaken was silent. He did not want their night to end just yet and out of desperation he replied,

"Don't you want Natsume's number?" She had given Yamaken her number despite not being much of a fan.

Shizuku looked back at Yamaken, surprised. She, of course, wanted Natsume's number.

"I'll give you her number if you go on a date with me," he said, reading her response on her face.

She was furious. There was no way she was going to give in to Yamaken so easily. She was, despite all their time apart, still in love with Haru. And she hated how persistent Yamaken was.

_Doesn't he realize that I'll never like him? _she wondered.

Clearly not.

"No," she plainly replied.

"I'll take you to Del Posto," he added.

Frustrated, she snapped, "I don't care. I don't even know what that is and if you think I'm going to go on a date with you for Natsume's number, you've got me all wrong. I'll find another way to get in touch with her."

Then, she stormed away, toward the subway station to take the train home. But, when she got to the station, she decided to just walk instead. She was, after all, in New York. She walked down Broadway and browsed the various shops before making her way west toward her hotel.

But, just as she turned to head west, someone grabbed her a pulled her into an alley, covering her mouth so that she could not scream.

Alarmed, she tried to fight him off. But he was too strong.

"Don't move," he said. "If you move, I'll rape you."

She was shocked.

That voice, those arms. She knew them well.

It was Haru.


	3. Part 1 - Chapter 2 - Haru

"Haru..." she stammered but she wasn't sure what to say next. Her heart felt as if it would jump out of her chest. _Was it really Haru?_ If it wasn't, she was in big trouble. She wanted to turn around and look at him but she was too afraid to do so. Plus, she could not move. As usual, he had grabbed her a little too hard. "You're hurting me."

"Oh, sorry." He released his hold.

It was definitely Haru.

"Aren't we a bit old to be doing this?" Shizuku asked, half annoyed.

He didn't know how to respond. He saw her about half an hour ago at his favorite Yakitori place with Yamaken and wanted to approach them but, as he did, he felt his anger rise up within him. It had been a long time since he had felt so angry and he did not know what to do with himself.

So, he ran.

"Oh," he replied. _If we are too old to do this, then what are we supposed to do instead?_ "Have dinner with me tomorrow," he demanded.

She breathed a sigh of relief. She had half expected him to kidnap her.

"Okay," was all that she could say in reply. Her heart was racing and she was not sure what to do. She grabbed his arm and wrote down the phone number of the company phone she was issued that morning.

Then, she got up and left.

There was no way she could face him. Not like that, not in that alley.

_What in the world is Haru doing here?_ she thought to herself as she continued home alone. But, for some reason, she no longer felt like she was alone.

And that was probably because she _wasn't_.

He followed her until they reached her hotel - The Standard. He had stayed there last time he was in New York but this time he stayed at Yuzan's, mostly because Yuzan was not there. From her hotel, he walked up the stairs that led to The High Line. He walked and walked until the park ended.

Then, he took a cab home.

* * *

The next day, all Shizuku could think about was Haru. She looked at her phone incessantly but he did not call or text.

_What is Haru doing? Is this some sort of game?_ she thought to herself. _Or maybe I just imagined him last night. Yes, that's probably it. It's probably because Yamaken mentioned Natsume and Sasayan. And that made me think of Haru._

She looked over a Yamaken who had decided not to sit next to her today. _Why won't he just give me Natsume's number?!_

When the day finally came to an end, she approached him,

"Yamaken."

"Oh, Shizuku. What is it?" _Why is he suddenly being so casual after being so forward last night?_

"About Natsume..."

"I told you yesterday, I'll give you her number in exchange for a date."

She was silent. She couldn't believe that, after all that time, he would still be so persistent. _Hasn't he found a girlfriend yet?_ But then again, it was just like Yamaken to _be_ persistent.

"You should have come out last night," he continued after some time. "It was a lot of fun. We're going bar hopping downtown tonight. Give me call if you want to join." He handed her his card with his cellphone number written on the back.

"Did you convince that girl yet?" Yamaken's friend asked.

"No."

"Come on!"

"Whatever." He pretended not to care. "It's her loss anyways."

"Yeah. But still, it's our loss if she doesn't come out."

"How so? There will be plenty of girls at the bar."

"Yeah, but she's cute!"

"And a co-worker," another trainee added.

She pretended not to hear them as she continuously pressed the down button for the elevator. _Why won't the elevator just come already?!_

*Ding*

The doors opened.

She looked up and stared at the man in the elevator in shock.

Time came to a stop, at least for her.

"Haru?!" Yamaken said, recognizing his old _friend_.

They piled into the elevator, Shizuku last.

"Yamaken." Haru was annoyed.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Yamaken asked.

Ignoring Yamaken, Haru turned toward Shizuku and apologized, "Shizuku, I'm sorry I haven't called all day. I had to take care of something for Yuzan. Are you still available for dinner tonight?" Haru was surprising calm and normal whereas Shizuku could hardly hold herself together.

She _was_ still available for dinner although she could not reply. The shock of seeing Haru in the elevator at work was too much for her. Plus, he was acting so normal that it threw her off. _A lot had changed in the past four years, huh?_ she thought to herself.

Yamaken looked at them in shock. _One day in New York and she has already reunited with Haru?! Or have they been together this whole time? _He did not know. All he knew was that he did not like the sight of Haru and that Haru seemed to randomly appear at the most inconvenient times.

"What are you doing here?" Yamaken repeated sternly, demanding an answer.

"Oh, I'm here for a conference," Haru nonchalantly replied. He thought about it for a second and then added, "Or do you mean here as in here here?"

Yamaken glared at Haru.

He supposed it was the latter. "Yuzan asked me to attend some meeting with the bankers handling one of his mergers. It was boring."

"Are you and Yuzan on good terms now?" Shizuku asked, suddenly able to overcome her shock and speak.

"You could say that, I suppose."

*Ding*

Their ride came to an end. They stepped out of the elevator into the lobby. Haru, Shizuku, and Yamaken lingered as the rest of the trainees quickly made their way out the door and into the street.

"You looking to join us for dinner?" Haru sneered, shooing Yamaken away.

"Not likely." He followed the rest of his friends outside.

"Haru..." Shizuku said when they were finally alone. She looked up at him and then asked the question that had been on her mind for the past four years, "Where have you been?"

Avoiding her question, he took her hand and led her outside. He didn't like office buildings and wanted to get out of the suit he was wearing as soon as he possibly could.

He hailed a cab.

"West Broadway and Worth," he said to the driver. He pulled Shizuku into the cab with him and then shut the door behind her. "You look uncomfortable in those clothes," he noted, leaning in a little too close. He lingered as he fought his desire to kiss her. It had been four years and her kiss was the one thing that he missed the most, besides her in general of course.

Flustered, she pushed him away and looked over at him in shock. _Four years of not seeing this guy and the first thing he does is suggest that I take my clothes off?! He has got to be kidding me_.

"Oh!" He suddenly realized how his comment might have been construed. He shot her an innocent smile although, now that he thought about it, he couldn't help but to imagine her without that suit she was wearing. She had filled in quite a bit and he could not deny that the curves looked really nice on her.

She was silent. Avoiding his gaze, she looked down at her hands, which she had unconsciously folded in her lap. _What am I supposed to say now?_

He admired her as the streets passed. Nervously, he reached over and touched her hand but uncertainty made him pull his hand back as soon as it touched hers.

Her heart fluttered when he touched her but she did not move. She could not look at him without feeling overwhelmed with emotion and she did not like feeling overwhelmed. So, to maintain her calm, she stared out the window at the busy streets of the unfamiliar city.

"Is this corner okay?" the cabbie asked as they approached Yuzan's loft.

"Yeah." Haru paid the cabbie and pulled Shizuku out of the car.

They went into a nondescript brick building and up to the eleventh floor, the highest floor of the building. She followed him down the short hallway to the last door on the left. He punched a code in and the door opened.

Inside was the most beautiful loft Shizuku had ever seen. It was modern and sleek with dark mahogany wood floors, giant windows, a cozy fireplace, and exposed brick on one wall.

A giant television, a comfortable looking suede sectional, a marble coffee table, and a fully stocked bar decorated the living room area.

The kitchen was huge and spotless. The walls were off-white, lined with different shades of green and blue tiles. Below the tiles there were marble counter tops and sleek black cabinets with frosted glass windows. A beautiful island, with spotless copper pots and pans hanging from the ceiling, stood in the center of the kitchen, and a gigantic stainless steel refrigerator completed the scene.

She guessed that Haru probably never cooked.

"_This_ is where you live?" She wasn't totally surprised considering Yuzan's birthday party so many years ago. But it was almost too nice, too perfect, to be true. Plus, it did not really seem like Haru's style.

"No. This is Yuzan's place."

"Oh."

"Do you want something to change into?" he offered as he took off his suit jacket and hung it on a stool by the counter height steel dining table. "I hate wearing suits."

She looked up at him and blushed. She sort of liked the suit on him. It made him look so professional, so _mature_. And she suddenly noticed that he had buffed up quite a bit. She guessed fishing was a hard work.

"Come on," he said as he started up the spiral staircase just beyond the kitchen. "You can raid Yuzan's closet. I'm sure there's _something_ in there that you could wear."

She followed him upstairs to a large bedroom and into the biggest walk-in closet she had ever seen. Haru went through the neatly organized clothes, making a mess of everything.

"Here." He pulled out a stylish but comfortable looking black dress and handed it to Shizuku.

"Why does Yuzan have women's clothing in his closet?" she asked, taking the dress from Haru.

He shrugged. "They're probably from his girlfriends."

"Yuzan has a girlfriend?!"

"_A_ girlfriend? Probably not. He takes after Dad."

"Oh..." she replied. "Where is he anyways?" She didn't know why she was asking where Yuzan was when she was actually more interested in where Haru had been for the past four years. Perhaps there was a part of her that couldn't bring herself to face the fact that he had not went back for her.

"In London."

"London? What's he doing in London?"

Haru looked over at her, annoyed. He did not want to talk about Yuzan because he was still angry at his brother for forcing him to miss a whole afternoon of talks to attend some useless meeting.

"Shizuku, I have no idea. All I know is that he didn't show up to his meeting and made me go in his place."

"You guys have a tendency of doing that, huh?!" she said before she could stop herself from saying it. Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought about all the years she spent waiting for Haru.

"Doing what?" He looked over at her with a smile. He was so happy she was there that he could not really concentrate on what she was saying.

"Not showing up," she whispered, mostly to herself.

"Huh?"

She looked up at him, annoyed. She couldn't believe that he literally had _no idea_ what she was referring to.

And she could not take it anymore.

She _had_ to know.

"Haru, where have you been?" she demanded. _And what the heck is going on here? _she added to herself.

Just when she thought her life had returned to _normal_, Haru conveniently turned it upside down (again).


	4. Part 1 - Chapter 3 - Del Posto

No response.

Shizuku looked up and found herself alone in Yuzan's closet. _Where did Haru go?_

"You ready?" he asked, reentering the closet in a graphic t-shirt and jeans.

She smiled. A t-shirt and jeans was definitely more like the Haru she knew.

"You haven't changed at all," he noted.

"Huh?" _What's that supposed to mean?_ she thought to herself, confused. _Is he referring to my appearance, my emotional state, my personality, or what?_

"Do you not like the dress? I'm sure there are others." He began rummaging through the closet again.

"Oh." She looked down at the dress in her hand. "No, it's fine."

"Okay. I'm going to wait downstairs then. Just come down when you're ready. Feel free to wear whatever you can find. I doubt Yuzan would even notice."

Quickly, she finished changing and went downstairs.

"Anything in particular you want to eat?" Haru asked, leaning against the kitchen island with his phone in his hand. "There's a sushi place down the block or we can walk over to Chinatown or SoHo. Whatever you want."

Normally, he would have preferred Okonomiyaki. But this time all he wanted was to make her as happy as she being there with him made him.

"Oh... I don't know."

She didn't know the city at all so she had no idea where she'd want to eat.

"Del Posto?" she suggested, remembering that Yamaken had seen Natsume and Sasayan there a few days ago. Perhaps they could bump into them as well.

"Del Posto?" He was hoping for something Japanese but Del Posto was fine. It was one of Yuzan's favorite restaurants so he went there from time to time with his brother. "Okay."

He went back upstairs and changed into one of Yuzan's button down shirts. Then, they took the elevator back down to the street and he hailed a cab.

"Do you have reservations?" the hostess asked when they arrived. The place was swankier than Shizuku had imagined.

Haru handed the hostess a card. She nodded and then immediately brought them to a table.

"The usual, sir?" the waiter asked when they sat down.

"Yes, please. For the both of us."

The waiter nodded and then went away, leaving them alone.

"You come here often?" Shizuku asked. It didn't seem like the kind of place Haru would frequent.

"No. Yuzan does though, so I guess we'll just be eating whatever he usually orders."

She smiled.

He looked over at her and felt the blood rush to his face when he noticed how cute she was. He had always loved her smile.

"How is Yuzan anyways? Does he live in London?"

"Yeah." He did not want to talk about Yuzan.

"And you two have worked out your issues?" she asked.

"Issues?" He pretended not to know what she was referring to.

"Never mind."

They were silent. He clearly did not want to talk about Yuzan. But if he didn't want to talk about Yuzan, and refused to answer her question about where he had been all this time, then what were they supposed to talk about? She wished she could get into his mind but she knew that there was no way to tell what Haru was thinking.

"So, what are you doing in New York?" she asked after some time.

"I'm here for a conference," he replied.

"A conference?" She did not understand. "Is it some sort of tuna fishing conference?"

He laughed. "I wish!"

She looked over at him and smiled. She could not believe that Haru was really there, sitting in front of her in New York. Good thing she was not waiting for him in Japan.

"It's a conference on climate change." He explained to her a little bit about the conference and the various speakers who were giving talks. He talked so fast that she couldn't really follow. Plus, she was lost in a daydream. She admired how much he had grown and made note of all the things that were still the same. His hairstyle for one had not changed. But his face was definitely more mature although his smile was still the same. "My adviser and I will be presenting Thursday night. You should come, if you can."

"Okay," she replied, reaching over and brushing his hair out of his face. He blushed when she touched him. "But I'd have to check the training schedule."

"Alright." He was hopeful that she'd show up.

He went through his bag and took out the schedule for the conference and handed it to her. She flipped directly to Thursday night's schedule,

_8:00-8:30 PM - Robert Woollocott and Haru Yoshida, Harvard University - Ocean Acidification and it's Effect on Global Climate Change__  
_

"You ended up going to uni?" she asked, looking up from the packet.

"Yeah, well, I met someone who changed my life." He smiled. He looked so happy that she was happy for him although inside, her heart broke. She knew it. When he left her four years ago, she had prepared for him to leave her for good. And now, the hope that she had held on to for so long, hope that Haru would someday return to her, was gone.

"Oh," she replied, holding back the tears that had suddenly welled up in her eyes again.

The waiter came by and explained their first course as well as the wine pairing that went with it. Shizuku looked down at her plate. It was pretty. She continued to stare at it for a while, forcing herself to not think about what Haru had just told her.

_He's happy now and that's all that mattered_, she told herself. Although, in her heart, she obviously wished for more.

"You seem really happy, Haru."

He looked up at her with the biggest smile she had ever seen on him. "I am."

"Oh." She forced a fake smile in return. "That's good."

They ate the rest of their eight-course meal in silence._  
_

"You want to walk around for a bit?" Haru asked after he paid the bill. She insisted on splitting it, but he refused. He had Yuzan's credit card after all. "There's a park nearby that I really like."

"Okay," she replied. She was still too upset to really think straight. _Why did I wait so long for him when I knew that he would not come back? _She did not know.

He walked ahead of her, up a flight of stairs to an odd looking park. The park looked as if it was once a railroad track but has somehow transformed into a park. It was covered with overgrown grass, bushes, flowers, and trees.

Modern benches scattered the landscape and she could suddenly see that her hotel was only a few blocks away.

_Thank God_, she thought to herself when she saw her hotel.

She considered simply going home for the night but her desire to stay with Haru kept her from doing so. Despite knowing that his heart was no longer hers, she could not deny the fact that hers still very much belonged to him. He was her first love. And she was not prepared to let him go just yet.

_Someday_, she thought to herself, _someday __I'll find the strength to let him go._

"So... you and Yamaken..." Haru started, breaking through her brokenhearted thoughts. He didn't _really_ want to know, but he couldn't help but to ask.

"What about me and Yamaken?" she replied. The thought of Yamaken annoyed her. She wished he would just give her Natsume's number.

"Are you two... together?"

"What?!" She was so shocked by his question that she couldn't find the words to explain how _not_ together they were.

He chuckled. "I'm guessing that's a 'no.'"

He reached for her hand but she pulled hers away. She felt her heart break again when he touched her. _What is he doing?! Is he trying to kill me? _she thought to herself. She could not stand it anymore. It hurt too much for her to be near him.

"I should go," she said after some time. "I have some studying to do and I have to wake up early tomorrow."

"Let me walk you home at least," Haru insisted. He did not want their night to end.

"Actually, I live right here." She pointed up at the hotel above them.

"Oh, right. I knew that," he replied with a smile.

She gave him an odd look.

_Did he follow me last night or something?_ But then again, that would not be very surprising considering it was Haru. Although, she thought to herself, _if he did follow me, then that may mean that he still loves me_.

Hope filled her heart but, as soon as it began to settle, she shook it off and thanked him for dinner. She could not let herself hope for Haru to be hers again for she knew it was not true.

"You can thank Yuzan." He smiled and then walked her to the door. "Good night."

She pushed through the revolving doors of the hotel and into the lobby before letting out a loud sigh. She was finally safe. Quickly, she made her way up to her room and threw herself onto the bed.

_I met someone who changed my life._

Haru's words repeated themselves in her mind. _Who is this girl who changed Haru's life?_ She wondered if the girl was smart. _Perhaps she likes to fish as well._ She did not know. All she knew was that she wished she had begged Haru not to go so far away when she had the chance.

Then, maybe, he would still be hers.


	5. Part 1 - Chapter 4 - Natsume

_Hello, just wanted to make some notes as I continue to write this story. I love this manga so much and __try to keep the characters true to how I think they would end up based on the original story. Feel free to let me know if you think they are too out of character. :)_

___When I first finished reading the manga (so far), I thought to myself: it would be interesting to see how these characters turn out after college. Like, what would each of them do for work? Would they still be friends? Would they still be together? etc. And that's how this story came about. Note, it may end up getting really long. Not sure yet but I have some ideas as to how this will turn out. Hope you enjoy it!_

___As always, thanks for reading. :)_

* * *

The next day, Haru did not call, text, or randomly appear out of nowhere. Shizuku was so used to him stalking her that she sort of half expected him to show up at her office after work.

But he didn't.

She reminded herself that he had met someone else and forced herself not to think about him. But, the more she tried to suppress her thoughts about Haru, the more they tormented her.

"Is something bothering you?" Yamaken asked when their day finally came to an end. She looked up and realized that he had been sitting next to her the entire day.

"No, I'm fine," she lied.

He chuckled, reading through her lie. "Things didn't work out so well with Haru last night, huh?"

"That's none of your business, Yamaken," she replied coldly. His insinuations infuriated her and she wished that he would just leave her alone._  
_

"Some things just don't change," he noted.

She ignored him as she collected her books. Tonight, she decided, she would just go back to her hotel and study. They had covered a lot of material the past few days and, with Haru and Yamaken randomly reappearing in her life, she had a difficult time paying attention in class.

She packed her bag and headed for the elevator. Yamaken followed closely behind her and they rode down to the lobby in silence.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, she stepped out and quickly made her way out the door.

"Shizuku," Yamaken said as she hailed a cab to go home.

"What do you want?"

He could tell that she was just as disinterested in him as she had been in high school. _Some things just don't change_, he repeated to himself.

A cab stopped in front of them.

"Here," Yamaken said, handing her a folded sheet of paper before opening the cab door for her to get in. Gently, he closed the door behind her before hailing a cab for himself. He was a gentleman after all.

"Where to?" the cabbie asked.

"The Standard."

She looked down at the paper in her hand. _What is this? _She unfolded it,

_Natsume - 1-917-876-1234_

Quickly, she punched the number into her phone.

It rang.

"Moshi moshi," Natsume cheerfully answered.

"Nat... Natsume?" The sound of her friend's voice on the other side of the phone made Shizuku nervous. She had not seen or talked to Natsume since they had a big fight over what Natsume was going to do with her life about two years ago, and she was not sure if Natsume would be happy to hear from her.

"Yup, that's me. Who is this?"

"Oh, Natsume, It's... it's Mitty."

"Mitty?! What are you doing with a 646 number? Are you in New York?!" Shizuku let out a sigh of relief. Natsume sounded really happy.

"Yes. I'm here for training."

"Oh my gosh! No way. How long are you in town for? We should meet up."

"I'll be here for six weeks, well five and a half now."

"What are you doing tonight?!" Natsume was so happy to hear form Mitty that she could not wait to see her.

"Nothing," Shizuku replied. She wanted to see Natsume so bad that she forgot she had planned to study.

"Perfect. Let's meet up then. Where are you staying?"

"Ma'am, we're here," the cabbie interrupted.

"Oh." Shizuku quickly paid the cab driver and got out of the car. "I'm staying at The Standard."

"Perfect. Let's go to Morimoto. It's only a few blocks from where you're staying. I'll meet you there at seven."

"Okay."

Natsume hung up.

Shizuku looked down at her phone - _6:15pm_. That was not a lot of time to get ready and to figure out where this restaurant was. She went up to her room and changed into a comfortable plain dress before looking up the restaurant on her phone. It was literally three blocks from her hotel.

_Perhaps Natsume lives nearby._

She walked to the restaurant and arrived a little before seven.

Her phone buzzed. It was a text message,

_I'm inside :) - Natsume._

She went inside and found Natsume seated at a table in the back. She was wearing a floral chiffon dress with a brown leather belt, charm bracelets, stilettos, and an over-sized tote. As usual, she was cute as ever.

"Mitty!" Natsume stood up and hugged her friend when she arrived. "I can't believe you're really here!"

"Natsume," Shizuku replied, "I can't believe _you _are really here. What are you doing here?!"

"I live here!"

They sat down at the table.

"Oh, I took the liberty of ordering the Omakase for us, by the way. I hope you don't mind."

"That's fine." Shizuku was so happy to see her old friend that she did not really care what they ate.

"I love this place. The service is great and the food is amazing," Natsume said. She wanted to tell her friend all about her life in New York and everything that's happened in the past two years but she wasn't sure where to start so she talked about the restaurant instead.

"I'm excited to try it. But more importantly, aren't you mad at me?" Shizuku asked. She was not the type to beat around the bush so she figured she'd get right to the point.

"Mad at you? Why would I be mad at you?" Natsume replied, confused. "Mitty, you're my best friend. I could never be mad at you."

"But..." Shizuku was so happy she wanted to reach over the table and hug her friend again, but she refrained. "I thought you were avoiding me after that fight."

"Fight?" She thought about it for a moment. "Oh, you mean that time you got fed up and demanded that I just get my life together already?"

"Yeah..." Shizuku was not proud of that moment and wished that she had been a little more gentle with her friend that day.

"Oh, well I _was_ upset. But then I realized you were right. And, to be honest, if it weren't for that fight, I probably wouldn't be here right now."

Shizuku looked up at Natsume, surprised. She did not realize how much that fight meant to her friend.

"You ignored my calls for a whole month," she noted.

"I know, and I'm sorry. I was really upset so I holed myself up in my room for days until my Mom forced me to come out. I told her I didn't know what to do with my life so she sent me here, for fashion school."

"Fashion school?"

"Yeah."

"So you are a fashion designer now?" Shizuku was happy for her friend but it seemed a bit off.

Natsume laughed. "No way! It was so boring. They made me... make clothes and stuff, which I hated. So I quit fashion school and ended up going to tech school instead."

"Tech school?"

"Yup. But I quit that too."

"Oh..." It was not sounding too good. Shizuku wondered if her friend had actually done _anything_ with her life. "So what are you doing now?" she asked as nonchalantly as she possibly could.

"Oh, well, mostly... I blog."

"You _blog_?" It did not sound like much progress to Shizuku.

"Yeah. And who would have known that you could make so much money off blogging!"

"You get paid to blog?" Natsume's life did not make _any_ sense to Shizuku. Who would pay someone to blog? "What do you blog about?"

"Fashion."

Shizuku laughed. "I don't know why I asked. That actually makes a lot of sense. So you seriously get paid to blog about fashion?"

"Yup. It's amazing! I get to go shopping and then write about it, get paid for writing about it, and then go shopping again. Plus, since my blog has become pretty popular, I've started meeting up with various fashion designers and blogging about their products, which they give me for free. It's really quite fun."

"That sounds pretty awesome actually."

"It is." Natsume told Shizuku all about her blog and the various products she had tried in the past few months, some good and some not so good. Overall, her work kept her pretty busy although she still had time to enjoy her life in New York as well.

Seven courses and a little over an hour later, they finished dinner and decided to walk around Chelsea Market.

"I love this place," Natsume said as they walked through the indoor market. "Sometimes, after working for the day, I would come down here and shop and eat. It's great. There really is everything I could ask for in one place here. Oh, and Yuzan likes it too, mostly for the sweets."

"Yuzan? Do you talk to Yuzan?" Shizuku asked.

"Oh, right. Yes. I see him every few months, when he's in New York."

Natsume's phone rang.

"Moshi moshi." Shizuku browsed the stores as Natsume talked on the phone. She couldn't believe that everyone had kept in touch, besides her. She wondered if Natsume talked to Haru as well. And, if she did, whether she knew about this person who changed his life.

"Hey," Natsume said after hanging up the phone. "Do you mind if we stop by my apartment?"

"Not at all."

Natsume picked up some take-out before the two girls made their way to Natsume's apartment a few blocks over. They walked up to the third floor of a brick building, to Natsume's cozy one bedroom apartment.

"Hi Sasayan, I'm sorry I forgot you were going to be home early today," Natsume said as they entered the apartment. She walked over to Sasayan who was sitting on the black leather couch, furiously typing away on his laptop.

"It's okay, Natsume. I actually still have some work I need to finish up. I was just getting hungry and wondered where you were."

"Oh. Mitty and I went to Morimoto. I brought you some take-out." She placed the food she purchased on the coffee table beside Sasayan and then kissed him on the cheek.

"_Mitty_?!" Sasayan looked up from his laptop. "Shizuku! It's really good to see you." He got up and hugged his old friend before sitting back down in front of his computer. "I'm sorry but I need to finish this report."

"It's okay."

"Have a seat," Natsume insisted. "I'll grab us some juices."

Shizuku sat down on the couch next to Sasayan. She looked over at him as he continued to work. He looked pretty much the same except he was in dress pants and a button down shirt.

She smiled. In the past three days, she had seen Haru, Natsume, and now Sasayan. And her world suddenly felt a whole lot more complete than it did when she first landed in New York three nights ago.

If only Haru was still hers, then _everything_ would be complete.


	6. Part 1 - Chapter 5 - Le Bain

Natsume returned with juice boxes for everyone.

"Are you two _together_?!" Shizuku asked the moment Natsume reentered the room.

"Huh?" Natsume was confused.

Sasayan's phone rang and he stepped out of the room to take the call.

"You and Sasayan, are you two together?" Shizuku clarified.

"Oh, Sasayan, he's my roommate."

"And...?"

"And what?" Natsume sat down next to Shizuku. "Oh, and we have Mittens too."

She looked around the room for something but did not find what she was looking for.

"Mittens?"

"Yeah."

Sasayan reentered the room.

"Who was that?" Natsume asked as he sat back down next to her.

"It was Phil. He and some of the guys from work are going to Le Bain. He was wondering if we wanted to join."

"Le Bain? That's where Mitty is staying," Natsume replied, excited. "We should go!"

"Okay, but who is Phil?" Shizuku asked.

"Oh, Phil is Sasayan's co-worker. He's really cool. They went to uni together."

"U Conn?"

"Yup. He also helped Sasayan get his job at MLB."

"MLB?"

"Major League Baseball. Mitty, you have got to get out more," Natsume replied. "Oh, speaking of going out, we should get dressed!"

"Yes, you two do that while I finish up this report. Should be pretty quick," Sasayan suggested, shooing the girls away. He wanted to hang out with them but he needed to finish his work first and it was difficult for him to concentrate with Natsume and Shizuku's chatting.

Natsume grabbed Shizuku's arm and led her into the bedroom.

"Get dressed? I am dressed," Shizuku objected.

Natsume looked at Shizuku's dress and shook her head. Then she turned and opened the closet door.

*Meow*

A cat came out of the closet and into the bedroom.

"Oh, Mittens! That's where you were. Mittens, this is Mitty," Natsume introduced the cat to her friend. He was a chubby grey tabby cat with white paws.

"Cute cat," Shizuku said, petting the cat.

"Yeah, I love Mittens. Sasayan gave him to me when I first moved to New York. He said it was to keep me company since Sasayan couldn't come visit me as much as he liked."

"That's sweet. Did he come visit often?" Shizuku imagined Sasayan, Natsume, and Mitten's life together in New York. It seemed really sweet and she wished that she could live there with them as well.

"About once a month."

Natsume looked through her closet for a fitting dress. She piled a few into her arm and then threw them on to the bed.

"What's with all the dresses?"

"I can't decide."

Shizuku walked over to the bed and examined one or two of the dresses. They all seemed a little too flashy for Shizuku's taste.

"Oh you should wear this one!" Natsume held up a red tunic dress and handed it to her friend.

"Umm..." Shizuku did not like the idea of wearing something so bright. "Can't I just wear this black one?" she asked, pointing to one of the dresses on the bed.

"Oh, sure." Natsume picked up the black dress Shizuku pointed to and handed to to her. But, upon further inspection, Shizuku did not feel like she could wear the black dress either. It seemed to drape a little too low for her liking.

"Maybe I'll just stick with the red one."

"Okay." Natsume decided on a blue one shouldered lace panel dress and silver charm slingback pumps for herself. "You want to borrow some shoes to go with the dress?"

"Why not," Shizuku replied. If she was going to dress up, despite the fact that she very much preferred not to, she might as well borrow some shoes too.

Natsume handed her a pair of black Prada metal heel pumps. "Take good care of them, they're my favorite."

"I will," Shizuku promised.

Then Natsume put on some light make-up and helped Shizuku do the same before the girls went back outside to the living room.

"Wow, you girls look great," Sasayan said as he closed his laptop. "All done."

"Great! Let's go then," Natsume cheerfully urged. She could not wait to go to Le Bain as it was one of her favorite spots.

Sasayan changed into a pair of jeans and a black button down shirt before they went back down the stairs to the street.

"How long have you lived here?" Shizuku turned and asked Sasayan as they walked west, toward the bar.

Casually, he reached down and took Natsume's hand before replying,

"Oh, I moved in about a month ago. I work only a few blocks away so I'm glad Natsume suggested that I move in with her after graduation."

Shizuku smiled. They seemed really happy together although she was not entirely convinced that they were just roommates. She looked at them, suspicious, but then decided it would be best not to ask. _Everything has it's own timing_, she told herself as they continued to walk in silence.

"The bar is in The Standard?" Shizuku asked when they arrived.

"Yup. You've been staying here for three days and you haven't been to Le Bain?" Natsume seemed surprised, although this was Shizuku they were talking about so she guessed it did kind of make sense.

"Nope."

"What do you do everyday after training?" Sasayan casually asked as they entered the hotel and took the elevator up to the Penthouse.

"Nothing," she replied but then thought about it for a moment. "Well, actually, I did go for Yakitori the first night with Yamaken."

"Oh, Yamaken. We saw him at Del Posto on Sunday," Sasayan recalled. "Have you two kept in touch?"

"No. We're working for the same company though, so we sort of reunited I guess."

"Oh, you're working at Goldman Sachs? It's a small world!" Natsume said, excited. She was so happy to see everyone back together again that she could hardly contain her joy.

Shizuku sighed. "It really is."

*Ding*

They stepped out of the elevator and walked past a Jacuzzi to the rooftop bar where Sasayan's friends were comfortably seated at a table on the AstroTurf. His friends welcomed the newcomers, offering them some of the Sangria they had ordered.

"No thank you," Natsume replied. "We're gonna go to the bar."

She grabbed Shizuku's hand as they made their way toward the bar.

"This place has amazing views, huh?"

Shizuku looked around and noted that views _were _truly amazing. She felt like she could see the entire city from where they stood and it was a pretty cool feeling.

"Can I buy you girls a drink?" A tall, scruffy, Italian guy offered when they got near the bar.

"No thanks," Shizuku politely declined.

"Come on, one drink won't hurt," he persisted. "Your friend is really cute. And you're not too bad yourself."

Clearly, he was a jerk.

"I said, no," she repeated, more firmly this time.

"What do you want?" Natsume asked, turning around to talk to her friend. "Oh..."

She was a bit surprised to see Shizuku talking to some random guy and, from where she stood, she could tell he was making her friend very uncomfortable. She walked over to them and grabbed Shizuku's arm, pulling her away from the guy.

He followed them to the bar.

"That guy is creepy," Natsume whispered to Shizuku as she pushed through the crowd to get to the bar tender.

But, before they could order their drinks, the guy put his arm around Shizuku. She could smell the alcohol on his breath and it made her sort of want to puke.

"Get away from her!" Natsume demanded.

"I just want to-" he started but was abruptly interrupted by a fist in his face.

It was Haru.

"Haru!" Shizuku exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

The guy tried to fight back but Haru was so strong that the creep quickly found himself on the ground. Haru, as usual, continued to punch the guy in a fit of rage.

"Haru, stop. Please!" Shizuku begged. But he did not hear her. All he saw was a guy, who Shizuku clearly did not like, put his arm around her shoulder after Natsume had told him off.

Shizuku looked over the crowd that had formed around them and saw a large security man making his way over to them.

"Haru, please," Shizuku cried.

No response.

She could not take it anymore. The fear that Haru would get in trouble compelled her to step in. She grabbed his arm, pleading for him to stop. But, in the frenzy of the moment, he pushed her to the ground.

Suddenly, alarmed that he may have hurt Shizuku, Haru turned around to make sure she was okay.

Natsume hurriedly helped Shizuku to her feet and then grabbed Haru. She pushed their way through the crowd, to the elevator and they quickly made their way downstairs and then hailed a cab for Natsume's.

Silently, they walked up the stairs to the apartment.

"Not five minutes in the bar and you had to get us kicked out!" Natsume cried when they finally got inside. She texted Sasayan, informing him that they had gone back to the apartment.

"Well, that guy shouldn't have persisted after you said no. Plus, he should learn to keep his hands to himself."

"He sure learned alright," Natsume replied, shaking her head.

Haru took his bag off and sat down at the wooden dining room table.

"Haru..." Shizuku started but she wasn't sure where her sentence was going.

"I'm going to the market," Natsume announced and then left. "Be back in a few."

Haru looked up at Shizuku, who was still standing by the door, with a shy smile. She looked so pretty in Natsume's dress that he wasn't sure what to do with himself.

"Where have you been?" he demanded after a while.

Naturally, she was confused.

"What are you talking about Haru?"

"I tried to call you but you didn't pick up. Then I went to your office but you weren't there. So I went to your hotel and you weren't there either."

"You tried calling me?" She looked through her bag for her phone. It was dead. "Oh, I must have forgot to charge it last night."

"You should really consider doing that," he suggested.

She let out a soft laugh and then walked over to Haru. She wanted to reach over and scrunch his hair, but she refrained.

He looked up at her and smiled.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing," she lied, suppressing her desire to kiss him. She sat down at the table next to him instead.

They were silent.

"I'm sorry," Haru said after some time.

"You haven't changed at all, huh?"

He raised his eyebrows as he gave her an innocent smile. "Well, if you have to know, that was the first time I punched someone in a really long time."

"Congratulations," she replied sarcastically.

A couple minutes later, Natsume returned with Sasayan and two of his friends.

"You guys sure know how to make a scene," Sasayan's friend joked when they arrived. "The bouncers went crazy looking for you."

"Thankfully Natsume got us out of there before they could get to us," Shizuku replied.

"You're lucky, that other guy didn't look too good."

"He has a tendency of doing that."

"Hey! It's been a long time," Haru objected.

"A long time since you knocked someone out?" Sasayan's other friend asked. "I'd have to say, that was pretty cool."

"Don't encourage it," Natsume said firmly.

The boys looked over at Natsume and complied. Guys always did whatever Natsume asked.

"Anyways, I guess we'll just be hanging out here for the night," Sasayan said. "We have some wine and Cards Against Humanities if you guys want to play."

"Sure," they all agreed and then gathered around the coffee table to play.

After a couple rounds, and two or three bottles of wine, Sasayan's friends took off.

Shizuku had fallen asleep on the couch in Haru's lap. He admired her as she slept. She was just as cute as she was in high school, if not cuter.

Natsume and Sasayan cleaned up the cards and the wine glasses before Natsume put a blanket over Shizuku for the night.

"You going to stay here the night?" she asked Haru after tucking Shizuku in.

He looked down as Shizuku, then back up at Natsume with a soft smile. "I think so."

Natsume smiled.

"I'm happy for you two, Haru."

"Thanks."

_Me too_, he thought to himself. _Me too.__  
_


	7. Part 1 - Chapter 6 - The Morning After

The next morning, Shizuku woke up tangled in Haru.

_What happened last night?_ she thought to herself as she checked the time - _6:45am_.

She was the first one up.

Gently, she untangled herself from Haru's arms and then tiptoed to the bathroom to wash up. After washing the make-up off her face, she quietly made her way into Natsume's room to get her dress. She smiled, but then quickly pretended not to look, when she saw Natsume, Sasayan, and Mittens cuddled up in their bed. They looked like such a cute happy family that she almost wished that they were together.

Shaking her thoughts from her head, she quickly grabbed her dress and then quietly closed the door behind her. She went back into the bathroom and changed out of Natsume's clothes.

Then, she brewed some coffee and made breakfast out of whatever she could find in the refrigerator.

About half-way though her cooking, Haru got up and poured himself a cup of coffee before sitting down at the dining room table.

Still unsure of what happened the night before, Shizuku ignored him. Pretending he was not there was the only way she could hold herself together. The last thing she remembered from the night before was running out of Le Bain with Natsume and Haru after he punched someone out.

How she ended up in his arms this morning, she had no idea.

"Good morning," he greeted her, interrupting her thoughts.

"Morning," she replied coldly.

He smiled, sipping his coffee. "Smells good."

Ignoring him, she continued to cook. A few minutes later, Sasayan came out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. Like Haru, he immediately went to the coffee machine and poured himself a hot cup of coffee.

"You guys sleep well?" he asked as he took a seat next to Haru.

"Yeah," Haru replied. "How do you like living with Natsume?"

They had not seen each other since Sasayan moved to New York.

"It's nice." Sasayan smiled, looking out the window in a daydream.

"Why don't you just ask her out already?" Haru interrupted his thoughts, reading his friend's mind.

He chuckled. "You out of all people know I've thought about it a thousand times, if not more, over the past six years. But, for some reason, I can't bring myself to ask her," he said and then paused. He stared down into his coffee cup and then admitted, "I guess I'm just afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

"Afraid she'd say 'no.'"

"You can't let that stop you," Haru insisted. He knew he certainly wouldn't.

"I'm not like you Haru, I can't just do and say whatever I want."

"Why not?" Haru did not understand why his friend would let his fear of rejection deter him from the one thing he wanted most.

"Haru, not everyone is like you," Shizuku interjected. "Not everyone gets whatever they want just by asking for it."

He looked up at her, a bit surprised by the annoyance he could sense in her voice. He wondered if she was mad at him for some reason but could not think of anything that he had done lately to make her upset. Perhaps she was mad about him starting a fight the night before? He did not know._  
_

"Well, it doesn't hurt to ask."

"It could," she insisted.

"How?"

"Guys, could you please," Sasayan politely interrupted.

He knew his friends had good intentions but their bickering about him and Natsume made him uncomfortable. Plus, he sensed that their conversation had more to do with them than it did him.

"I just sort of like the way things are right now, and I don't want to do anything that might ruin it," he added after a while. "You know how Natsume is."

"And how am I exactly?" Natsume cheerfully asked, stepping out of the room.

They all turned and looked at her.

"Oh, Natsume," Shizuku said as she placed the food on the table.

"You're just in time for breakfast," Sasayan added.

Natsume smiled. "You mean just in time to overhear you guys talking about me?" she said playfully.

Haru and Sasayan let out a nervous laugh.

"No, Nat," Sasayan replied. "Well, yes, we were talking about you. But nothing bad, I promise."

She walked over to Sasayan and sat down in the seat next to him before stealing his coffee.

"It's okay, Sasayan, I trust _you_ more than anyone."

His eyebrows raised as he glanced over at her with a soft smile. She smiled back and then kissed him on the cheek.

"I should get ready for work," he insisted. He wolfed down a plate of food, thanked Shizuku for breakfast, and then went back into the bedroom to change.

"I don't know why you insist on playing with Sasayan like that," Haru said after he was gone.

"What are you talking about Haru?" Natsume replied, a bit defensive. "I'm not playing with Sasayan."

"You know he likes you so if you like him back, just tell him. If not, stop leading him on."

"Oh..." she looked down at his cup of coffee in her hand.

"Everything has its own timing," Shizuku noted, saving Natsume from having to answer him.

They were silent, each lost in his or her own thoughts. It had been a long time since they have all been together and it brought back memories for each of them, along with an enumerable slew of questions.

"Hey, you want to go shopping today Haru?" Natsume asked after finishing her food. "We can get you a new outfit for your talk tonight!"

"Oh, sure." He looked over at Shizuku and wished that she could go as well but he knew she had to go to training. "I'm free until 2PM today."

"Perfect! Mitty, we'll come by your office for lunch after we go shopping."

"Okay."

Shizuku began to clean up the plates but Natsume insisted on doing it herself, shooing her friend away.

A few minutes later, Sasayan came out of the bedroom in his work clothes.

"You heading out soon, Shizuku?" he asked as he packed his laptop in his bag.

"Yeah."

"Great, I'll walk you to your hotel. My office is just a few blocks over."

"Thanks," she replied. She thanked Natsume for letting her sleepover and then promised to have her cell charged so they could reach her for lunch before heading out with Sasayan.

"It's nice to have everyone together again," she said as they walked west toward her hotel.

"Yeah, we missed you these past few years. Natsume the most."

"You really care for her, huh?"

"I do. And I think you're right, everything has it's own timing. I just hope I don't have to wait forever, although I _might_ just be willing to do so, if that's what it takes."

"Oh."

She looked down at the sidewalk as they continued to walk in silence. Would she be willing to wait forever for Haru as well? She was not sure.

Perhaps.

Or perhaps not.


	8. Part 1 - Chapter 7 - Nolita

**Thanks Anime Angel for the feedback! Updated.**

* * *

Haru helped Natsume clean up before they headed downstairs to go shopping. They walked east, toward Nolita, to the boutique shops that Natsume preferred.

"I like it when you and Mitty are in town," Natsume noted as they entered the first shop.

"Hey, I'm sorry about before," Haru said, ignoring her comment about him and Shizuku. "It's just really frustrating to watch Sasayan suffer."

"No, you're right," she replied. She hesitated, pretending to look at a dress, before continuing, "I _should_ tell Sasayan the truth. But... I guess I'm just scared."

Haru thought about it for a moment. If Natsume was scared then it could really only mean one thing,

"You like him don't you?" he asked to confirm what he was thinking.

She looked up at him, startled by his frankness. But then again, it was just like Haru to be so frank. Plus, it was one of her favorite things about her friend - he wasn't afraid to just say whatever he thought.

"Haru... _like _is an understatement," she admitted. "I..."

"You love him."

Her face turned pink as she nodded shyly, avoiding eye contact with her friend.

"I think so."

"Why don't you just tell him?" he insisted. "It's not like he's going to reject you."

"I know. But... I don't know." She shook her head in confusion.

Haru looked over at his friend. She looked usually troubled.

"I really like the way things are between Sasayan and I," she continued. "He's my best friend and I don't want to risk ruining our friendship by getting into a relationship with him. I don't know how to be someone's girlfriend..."

Haru toned out as Natsume rambled on and on about how little she knew of being a good girlfriend. He wondered if anyone truly knew what it meant to be a good girlfriend, or boyfriend in his case. Perhaps not. Plus, each person and each relationship is so different that he wondered if there was one right way to be.

"It's just so much easier to be friends than to be in a relationship."

"But you two are practically married," he noted when she was finally done talking. "It wouldn't be any different."

"It would be different Haru," she insisted.

"It would only different if you make it different Natsume."

She sighed, picking up a pair of shoes to go with her dress. She purchased the items and then headed off to the next store.

"Hey, I thought we were supposed to be shopping for _me_," Haru said after accompanying Natsume to two or three more stores.

"Oh, right. Sorry." She was so distracted by her thoughts about Sasayan that she could not concentrate on looking for outfits for Haru. As usual, the only thing she could do to get her mind off of Sasayan was to shop.

"Yuzan did mention you have a tendency of doing that," Haru teased as they browsed women's accessories.

Ignoring his comment, she picked up a set of bangle charm bracelets.

"What do you think of these?" she asked.

He looked at the bracelets in her hand, disinterested. "No clue."

"Your brother is a much more helpful shopping companion," Natsume said, a bit annoyed. She half wished Yuzan was there instead of Haru. But then again, at least things made sense with Haru, which was something that was no longer true about her friendship with Yuzan.

"I'm not surprised."

They were silent for a long time, Natsume again lost in her own thoughts.

"Too bad he refuses to talk to me, let alone see me, anymore..." she quietly added to herself.

"Well, that only makes sense considering what happened," Haru plainly stated. "You both knew it was stupid."

"Geez, thanks Haru."

He looked over at her sympathetically. She looked sad. For a moment, he wanted to take back what he said. But it was true, so he didn't.

She sighed. "You're right," she finally said as she put the bangles down. "I just wish we could be normal friends again."

"I'm sure he feels the same way," Haru replied. He paused for a moment and then added out of curiosity, "Does Sasayan know?"

"No." The thought of Sasayan finding out about her and Yuzan made her more nervous than she already was. She was certain that he would get upset and that it would make their relationship awkward, something she preferred not to risk.

Haru was silent.

"Do you still like him?" he asked after a while.

"Who? Yuzan?" She did not really want to talk about Yuzan. But then again, she sort of did. Over the last two years, Natsume and Yuzan had spent a lot of time together shopping and eating sweets. He had became one of Natsume's best friends. But, after a friendly night out dancing about three months ago, a month before Sasayan moved in, Natsume found herself at Yuzan's apartment.

More happened than she would like to admit. And, the next morning, Yuzan disappeared.

Natsume hadn't seen or heard from him since.

"Yeah," Haru said, interrupting her thoughts.

"To be honest, I never really considered Yuzan in that way," she admitted.

"Oh." He was a bit relieved to hear. But it did not make any sense to him. "Then why did you do it?" he asked.

"I don't know." She thought about it for a moment. "Perhaps we were both just... lonely?"

He was silent. He supposed he understood. Loneliness was a difficult thing.

"Anyways, I don't want to make the same mistake with Sasayan," Natsume said after a while. "Especially since I _do _like him."

"It's not the same. What happened between you and Yuzan has nothing to do with Sasayan. Plus, it's not like you guys can't still be friends."

She looked up at him, skeptical. Things never turn out well after... well, after the friend barrier is crossed, accidentally or not.

"I don't know," she replied.

"Well, from what I hear from Yuzan, he mainly avoids you because he doesn't want to make you feel uncomfortable. I'm sure deep down he misses your companionship as well."

She did not reply. Deep down, she regretted what happened between her and Yuzan more than anything.

They stepped out of the accessory store and walked north, toward St. Marks. Dragging her feet, Natsume was suddenly not in the mood to shop.

"Let's go in here," she suggested, pointing at a men's store with professional looking but casual clothes in the storefront windows.

Haru nodded in agreement. It seemed fitting.

"You really think Yuzan and I can be friends again?" she asked as she handed Haru a blue and brown stripped button-down shirt, a pair of khakis, and a dark brown tweed sports coat.

He put the clothes on and stepped out of the fitting room before replying, "Yeah. It was a mistake and I think that as long as you both understand how each other feel, you will be okay. Especially if neither of you are interested in the other."

"You think that's the case?" She had no idea how Yuzan felt about her and was sort of happy to hear that he was not interested.

"Yeah," Haru reassured her.

Relived, Natsume looked up at him and smiled.

"You look super dorky," she said as she assessed the outfit on her friend. She handed him a grey Armani suit and a light blue button-down shirt instead. "Try this one."

"I have a million suits that look like this," he objected.

"Just try it on," she repeated sternly.

"Okay." He put on the suit and came back out of the dressing room.

"Better."

He growled. "I think I'm going to go with the first outfit."

"Fine," Natsume replied, disappointed.

He laughed and then purchased the khakis and sports jacket she picked out for him earlier before they walked over to Shizuku's office for lunch.

They met up with Shizuku at Shake Shack, the burger place just down the block from her office, for a relatively uneventful lunch. Unfortunately for Haru, Yamaken and a few other trainees joined them as they sat down outside to eat.

Yamaken introduced Natsume to the trainees.

"So what kind of conference are you attending?" Yamaken asked Haru as the trainees bombarded Natsume with an extensive questions and answers session. As usual, the boys wanted, more than anything, to be her _friend_.

"Oh, it's a conference on global climate change. My adviser and I will be giving a talk tonight if you'd like to come and sit in on it."

"No thanks," Yamaken replied. He was bored just thinking about global climate change. "I thought you were fishing or something."

"I was. But then I decided to go to uni instead."

"So you're studying climate change?"

"Marine Biology."

"Interesting. What are you going to do with _that_?" Yamaken did not understand why anyone would want to study something so impractical.

"Research, mostly. And, maybe, teach."

"That suits you," he noted.

"Thanks." Haru wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not but he decided to take it as such. Although, considering it was coming from Yamaken, it probably wasn't.

After a while, he looked over at Shizuku who was engaged in a conversation with a trainee who looked like an Abercrombie & Fitch model in a suit. He was tall and fit with dark blonde hair and blue eye. Noticing Haru staring at her, she looked over at him and introduced the two,

"Haru, this is Ben, he's going to be working in London with me. Ben, this is Haru."

"Nice to meet you." Ben reached over and firmly shook Haru's hand. "How do you two know each other?"

"We met in high school," Shizuku replied.

"In Japan?"

"Yeah."

"Wow and you two are still friends after all this time?" He seemed a bit surprised, or perhaps jealous. Haru could not put his finger on it but, from what he could tell, he was not a fan of Ben. He was casual and smart but seemed a little too clean-cut for his liking. Plus, he did not appreciate the way he looked at Shizuku.

"Well, we sort of coincidentally bumped into each other a few days ago," Haru explained.

"Oh." Ben laughed. "That's New York for you."

"Did you grow up here?" Natsume asked, overhearing their conversation.

"Sort of. I was born here and lived in the Upper West Side until I was twelve, when my family moved to London, then Paris, then Hong Kong. We sort of moved around a lot. Then I went back to London for university."

Haru toned out as the guy continued to talk about himself.

"I can show you around London when we get there if you'd like," Ben added to Shizuku after a while.

"Oh." She looked over at him, suddenly realizing he was talking to her. "Okay," she reluctantly replied. She was not really interested in 'hanging out' but she figured it couldn't hurt.

Haru was enraged. He imagined that, in a little over than a month, Shizuku and Ben would be in London together while he was on a research vessel in the middle of the Pacific.

And, for the first time in his life, he wished otherwise.

The hour came to an end and Haru and Natsume bid the trainees goodbye before walking over to Yuzan's apartment.

"You want to come upstairs for a bit?" Haru asked when they arrived.

"Um..." Natsume hesitated. "I would but... is Yuzan around?"

"No. He's in London."

"Oh, okay," she replied, relieved. "Then, yes!"

They took the elevator up to the eleventh floor.

"Has he changed the code?"

"Nope."

Natsume punched in the code and the door opened. They stepped into the apartment and put their bags down on the kitchen table. Natsume quickly made herself comfortable on the couch as Haru grabbed some water from the refrigerator.

"Brother!" A voice called out from the upper level of the loft.

It was Yuzan.

And before Natsume could bolt out the door, he was standing in front of them in his pajamas.

"Yu... Yuzan!" Natsume nervously stared at him in shock.


	9. Part 1 - Chapter 8 - Natsume and Yuzan

About three months ago, on a chilly Saturday night, Natsume and Yuzan sat on the couch in Yuzan's loft, eating cronuts and watching TV.

"You want to watch season eleven?" Yuzan asked as they finished watching the tenth season of The Walking Dead.

She shook her head. "No. I can't take any more of that stuff! It's too scary."

He laughed.

"Can we watch the rest tomorrow?" she asked.

"Okay, princess," he teased.

Yuzan looked up at the stainless steel pendulum clock on the kitchen wall - 11:35 PM.

"What do you want to do then? It's still pretty early."

"Hmm... I don't know." Natsume thought about it for a while, looking over at Yuzan who was comfortably stretched out on the long end of the sectional in his pajamas. She was cuddled up against the other end of the couch in a sweater dress and leggings with Yuzan's blankets all piled on top of her.

11:35 PM on a Saturday night in New York, they had quite a few options. They could go see a movie, or grab some food, or go to a bar or something. Natsume weighed their options. They've been watching TV and eating basically all day, so a movie or food was out of the question.

"Oh, how about we go dancing?" she suggested, itching to work off the sweets they had eaten.

"Oh, sure!" Yuzan replied, excited. He loved to dance and found Natsume to be a fun partner.

Turning off the TV, they got up and went upstairs to get dressed. Natsume borrowed one of Yuzan's girlfriends' dresses before they headed down to the street and hailed a cab for the meatpacking district. They weren't sure which club they wanted to go to, so they figured they'd just go and figure it out when they got there.

They started at a lougue or two before heading over to Cielo to dance.

By around 4 AM, Natsume was tired and wanted to go home but Yuzan was no where in sight.

"Can I buy you a drink?" a tall Asian guy asked as she looked for Yuzan at the bar.

"No," she replied frankly.

"Wow you really don't beat around the bush, huh?" he replied, a bit started by the directness of her answer. "I like it."

"Listen, I'm not interested," Natsume added, annoyed. She was used to guys hitting on her at clubs and sort of wanted him to just go away.

"Geez, you have a boyfriend or something?" he asked. He seemed a little taken aback by her disinterest but, considering he persisted anyways, he was clearly not going away. He reached to put his arm around Natsume, but before he could even touch her, Yuzan appeared and grabbed Natsume's arm, pulling her away from the guy's reach.

"She does," he lied. He could tell that the guy Natsume was talking to was giving her a hard time and figured that it would be easiest if he just stepped in and pretended to be her boyfriend.

She looked up at him and smiled, relieved to have found her friend. She had been working on trying to be nicer to guys, but it was difficult when they were so persistent.

The guy looked over at Yuzan and scoffed,

"If she were _my_ girl, I wouldn't let her out of my sight for a second."

"Creepy," Yuzan replied as Natsume wrapped her arms around him. The warmth of his body against hers was surprisingly nice.

Playing along, she insisted,

"Honey, can we go home now?"

"Of course, princess."

He led her outside and hailed a cab to take Natsume to her home.

"19th and 8th, please," he said as they entered the cab.

"Actually... can I just crash at your place tonight?" she asked as she rested her head on his shoulder.

He looked down at her, confused, but then agreed. _Some company would be nice_, he thought to himself.

Like Natsume, Yuzan did not like to be alone.

Quickly, he redirected the cab driver and then helped Natsume up to the loft.

"You can have the bed," he said as he moved the blankets from the couch back upstairs to the bedroom.

"Thanks."

She took a shower and then climbed into the bed in a borrowed t-shirt and shorts. Quietly, he washed up and made his way back down the stairs to sleep on the couch. But, before he could make it to the stairs, Natsume called out to him,

"Yuzan?"

"Yes, princess?" he replied.

"I'm cold."

He was silent. Having been in this sort of situation before, he knew that that was code for, 'I want to cuddle.' But never in his life would he have thought that the request would come from Natsume.

"I'll turn up the heat," he insisted, pretending not to understand what she was suggesting.

"Actually..." she began to explain but wasn't sure how.

"Natsume, that's not a good idea," he said, saving her from having to finish her sentence.

"Oh..." she sounded so sad that he felt bad for saying 'no.'

He knew that being in New York, so far from all her family and friends, was hard for her but he was sure that she would regret it if they _cuddled_.

"Yuzan, do you like me?" she asked after a while.

"Not like that," he replied. "Why?"

"Well... then it should be fine, right? I just want to be held; just for a little bit."

He thought about it for a while and supposed that she made a point. If he didn't like her, which he was pretty sure he didn't, and she didn't like him, then everything would be fine. _Cuddling would be fine_, he convinced himself, against his better judgement.

"Okay," he relented, reminding himself that Natsume was his brother's friend, and that he had promised Haru that he would look after her.

Reluctantly, he got into the bed and wrapped his arms around Natsume, as she requested. The comfort of being held made Natsume feel at ease.

"Yuzan?"

"Yeah?"

"How come you don't have a girlfriend?" she asked as she looked up at him with her big brown eyes.

He looked down at her, cuddled up against him with her head on his shoulder and, for the first time, noticed how cute she was.

He shook the thought from his head and blankly replied,

"What are you talking about Natsume? I have a girlfriend."

"You don't have to lie to me Yuzan. I know there are a lot of girls that you hang out with and do stuff with but, you know what I mean. Why don't you just stick with one of them? I'm sure at least one of them is good."

He sighed. He was not good with relationships and didn't really know how to properly interact with women. It seemed that he had sort of subconsciously picked up bad habits from his Dad. He hated himself for it, but he was not sure how to change.

"I don't know," he lied. There _was_ someone he liked but she always seemed so distant, except when they were in bed, that he was sure that she was not interested in being in an actual relationship with him.

She was silent for a while. And he half thought she had fallen asleep until she added,

"Well, I think you'd make a sweet boyfriend. Plus, you're not bad looking."

"Huh?" He was confused. Her comment threw him off guard. He did not expect Natsume to say something like that, and it made him a little uncomfortable.

She did not reply. Instead, she buried her head in his shoulder.

"Natsume?" he said after some time. "Do _you_ like _me_?"

No response.

_Did she like him?_

She was not sure. All she knew was that she liked being around him, he was fun, and he did not constantly ask her out.

"I don't know," she replied, pressing her body up against his as she looked up at him again. Naturally, feeling her body pressed up against his made him want to do more than just cuddle. He fought his urge to do as he pleased, reminding himself that it was Natsume.

"You're drunk," he said after a while.

"No. I think I just don't want to be alone, and I like being with you," she said as she reached up and played with his hair. It was softer than she expected. She was not sure what she was doing but she suddenly felt like she wanted something more from Yuzan. And he could sense it.

"Stop that Natsume," he demanded.

"Stop what?" she innocently replied.

The cuteness in her voice pushed him over the edge. He was not able to control himself any longer. He pushed her over and pressed his body up against her, kissing her neck.

Startled by his sudden aggression, she let out a soft cry. Was Yuzan truly going to do what it seemed like he was going to do?

"No, please," she cried as she suddenly realized what might happen. She regretted not letting him sleep downstairs when he insisted.

He looked down at her and, realizing what he was about to do, forced himself to stop. He sat up in the bed a few seconds, silent, before making his way down the stairs to the couch.

The next morning, he took the first flight out from JFK to London.

* * *

And now, three months later, they found themselves face-to-face again in his apartment.

"Natsume..." Yuzan was not sure what to say to her and sort of wished that he did not return to New York. He had not been back since that night and had told Haru a very vague version of what happened, hoping that he would not bring Natsume around if he did come to town for a visit. Unfortunately, he neglected to tell Haru he was in town.

"Yuzan, what are you doing here?" Haru asked, surprised. "I thought you were in London."

"I was. But I didn't want to miss your talk so I figured I'd fly in for it..." Yuzan explained. "Plus, there aren't any cronuts in London."

"I'm sure you can find a cronut in London," Haru replied, annoyed. "And if you can fly in for my talk and a cronut, why didn't you fly in for your meeting the other day?!"

Yuzan looked at his brother, confused. "Are you mad? You were here anyways so I figured there's no point in me spending more time than necessary in New York when you happen to be in town. How did it go anyways?"

"It was fine, I guess. I just agreed to whatever they wanted. Sounds like you're going to be out a lot of money."

"I want it to be done right so I think they are worth the expense."

"Okay," Haru replied. "I really don't care. Just don't make me go to these things for you again, okay?"

"Who else am I going to send, if not you, brother?" Yuzan innocently replied.

"I don't know. Send Andou or something. I don't care who you send, just not me."

Yuzan smiled. As usual, he found his brother's annoyance rather entertaining.

"Fine," he replied to soothe Haru's anger. "Cronut?"

"No."

Haru took his shopping bag and went upstairs to change, leaving Yuzan and Natsume alone in the kitchen.

"I should go," Natsume said, avoiding eye contact with Yuzan, as she made her way to the door.

He stepped aside to let her by but, just as she reached for the door, he gently grabbed her arm.

"Natsume."

Startled, she looked up at him and pulled her arm away.

She was silent.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. He looked down at the marble tiles on the kitchen floor as he waited for her reply.

"Yuzan..."

Her heart thumped nervously. She was not sure why she was telling him this but, for some reason, all she could say in response was,

"I love Sasayan."


	10. Part 1 - Chapter 9 - Sasayan

Yuzan chuckled.

He was glad that Natsume seemed to have figured out what she wanted and he was relieved to know that it was not him.

"That's a relief," he replied after some time. He smiled, putting Natsume at ease.

"Oh." She looked up at him, confused. "You're not upset?"

"No. Why would I be upset?"

"I thought you... well, I thought you fell in love with me or something."

He laughed. "Natsume, that would be wrong on so many levels. You are, obviously, a very attractive girl. But you're like a sister to me and that's all it will ever be," he explained.

"Oh, well, that's good. I'm sorry about last time."

He frowned. "Really Natsume? I'm the one who should be sorry. Although, you really should not have insisted on-"

"I know," she said, cutting him off before he can go into more detail than necessary about what happened. "Can we just pretend like it never happened?"

"I'd like that."

They were silent for a while. Natsume was so happy to have her friend back that she half wanted to hug him, but then decided that it would be best not to. It seemed that sometimes, irregardless of whether the two liked each other or not, boundaries between friends made good sense.

"So, Sasayan, huh?" Yuzan said, changing the subject.

"Yeah..." she replied.

"He seems like a good guy."

"He is."

"How long have you two been dating?" he asked. Like any good older brother, he wanted to make sure that Sasayan was treating Natsume right.

"Oh... we're not."

He looked at her, confused. "What do you mean you're not?"

"Well, I sort of haven't told him yet."

"Sort of?"

"Okay, I haven't told him yet," she admitted, correcting her previous statement. It seemed Sasayan was going to be the last to know.

Yuzan smiled. "You like watching the boy suffer or something?" he teased.

"No..." She was not sure what she was doing although, the more she thought about it, the more she supposed that Haru was right - everything will be okay, and it would only be different if she made it different. "I guess I should tell him."

"Yeah, probably."

After a few minutes, Haru came down the stairs in a graphic t-shirt and his new blazer and slacks.

"_That's_ what you're wearing?!" Natsume said, appalled.

"What? My adviser gave me this shirt and you picked out the rest. I thought you'd approve," he replied with a playful smile.

"'Now my life has a porpoise' huh?" Yuzan said, reading Haru's shirt, unamused.

"Yeah, porpoise." Haru pointed at the fish on his shirt. "Get it?"

Yuzan rolled his eyes. "Sure, brother. And you wonder why it took twenty something years for me to create a place where you belong," he replied, half-joking.

Haru shrugged, walking over to the chair where he left his bag.

"Should we go?" he asked. He did not want to be late to his talk. Plus, he could not wait to see Shizuku again.

* * *

That night, Shizuku, Natsume, Sasayan, and Yuzan sat through one of the most boring talks they had ever been invited to; although the _only_ talk they will ever attend would probably be more accurate.

"What did you think?!" Haru asked, excited, after the session came to an end. He looked over a Shizuku with a beaming smile on his face. "Shizuku, I'm so glad you made it."

She forced a fake smile in return.

"It was really interesting," Natsume lied in her usually chipper voice.

"Can we go get some dessert now?" Yuzan asked with a yawn. "I need something to wake me up."

"I should stay for the Poster Session," Haru replied before quickly making his way out of the room and into the lobby.

They followed to see what he was talking about but then decided that dessert was definitely more interesting.

"We'll be at Yuzan's," Sasayan informed Haru before they headed out.

They walked over to the Plaza Hotel to pick up a cake before heading back downtown to Yuzan's loft.

Yuzan placed the cake on the coffee table in the living room for them to share before brewing a pot of coffee to go with his dessert. Natsume grabbed some plates and cut the cake.

"Usually, I just eat right out of the box," Yuzan said as he poured four cups of coffee.

Natsume laughed. "I know."

She sat down next to Sasayan and handed him a slice of cake.

"You want to eat outside?" she asked after cutting a slice for herself. She wanted to talk to Sasayan in private and thought that the balcony would be the perfect place. Plus, it was a nice warm summer night and Yuzan's balcony had a pretty nice view of the river.

Sasayan agreed and the two stepped outside to eat alone.

"Haru says you're moving to London soon?" Yuzan asked, sitting down on the long end of the sectional. He waited for Shizuku to cut two pieces of cake, one for herself and one for Haru, before picking up the box and digging in.

"Yeah, I'll be moving there in September for work."

"Have you found a place to stay yet?

"No, not yet."

"You can live with me," he suggested. "There's an extra bedroom. It's actually Haru's but he rarely comes home so I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you stayed there. Maybe he would even come home more if you were there."

"Really?" Shizuku was a little relieved that she did not have to look for a place to live but she wasn't sure if living with Yuzan was a good idea. "I don't know."

"Well, you can give it a try and if you don't like it, you're welcomed to move out."

"Where is it located?" she asked. She knew that she was going to be working a lot of hours and sort of wanted to live near her work.

"Temple. Just off of Fleet street."

That meant nothing to her. She had not been to London and did not know where Temple was. Reading her expression, he took out his cell phone and typed in his address.

Then he passed it to her to take a look.

She studied the location, zooming in on the map. It looked like it was literally right next to her work.

"How much is the rent?"

He thought about it a while. He was not sure. His Dad had given the flat to him as a birthday present so he never had to pay rent.

"No clue," he admitted after some time. "Pay however much you want or don't pay me at all. I don't care."

She frowned. There was no way she was not going to pay him rent.

"We can figure it out later," he said, reading her expression. "Just let me know when you fly in. I'll pick you up."

"Okay. Thank you."

She was a little relieved that _someone_ she knew was going to be in London, even though she would have preferred Haru over Yuzan. Shaking the thoughts of being with Haru from her head, she reminded herself that he was happy with someone else now and that she had to find a way to move on.

_Although_, she thought to herself, _living with Yuzan probably isn't going to help_.

Yuzan wrote his phone number and email address on a post-it and handed it to Shizuku.

"Anything for my brother's girl," he replied.

She looked over at him, confused. Considering Yuzan knew she was moving to London, he and Haru obviously talk. So, there was no way Yuzan did not know that there was someone else in Haru's life.

She turned to ask Yuzan about Haru but, just as she did, his phone rang.

He looked down at his phone and smiled.

"Be right back," he said as he got up to take the call.

She nodded, picking the layers of her cake apart. It was delicious, but odd. She had never seen a cake made entirely of crepes before.

* * *

Outside, Sasayan and Natsume sat comfortably at the patio table, eating cake.

"I love Lady M," Natsume said as she nervously picked apart her cake.

Sasayan smiled. "I know."

They sat in silence for a while.

"Is everything okay, Nat?" he asked after some time. He could tell by the way she was picking at her cake that there was something on her mind.

"Oh," she looked up at him with a shy smile, blood rushing to her face. "Sasayan, there's something I want to tell you."

"What is it?"

She hesitated but then decided,

"I'm full," she said, handing her slice of cake to Sasayan.

He laughed, knowing that that was not what she intended to say.

"You barely ate," he noted, looking down at the cake she handed him. "I thought green tea was your favorite flavor."

"It is, but I don't really feel like eating."

Something was definitely wrong. It was not like Natsume to not eat at least some of her cake.

"Nat, what's the matter?" Sasayan asked, concerned.

"Sasayan..." she started. But she could not bring herself to confess to him how she really felt. Instead, she leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder.

He smiled, putting his arm around her before kissing her on the forehead.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be okay. And if it's not, I promise I'll do whatever I can to make it better," he said. And she knew that he would.

She smiled and then looked up at him, into his soft black eyes. She loved how his kindness showed in his eyes. And when she was with him, she felt safe, like she could be sure that he would protect her no matter what.

Looking back into Natsume's eyes, Sasayan could not help but to admire how cute she was. Naturally, he smiled back at her, melting the fears she had inside.

Then, almost instinctively, she reached up and kissed him.


	11. Part 1 - Chapter 10 - Sasayan and Yuzan

Shocked, Sasayan initially wanted to pull away, but he decided to kiss Natsume back instead. He had waited over six years for this moment and he was not about to simply throw it away.

After a while, he pulled himself away from Natsume and looked over at her, confused.

She blushed, avoiding his gaze.

"Natsume?"

Unsure of what to say, Natsume slowly turned her gaze toward Sasayan, a shy smile on her face.

"Natsume, do you like me?" he asked although he was not sure if he _really_ wanted to know.

She nodded, her cheeks turning red.

He chuckled and then sat, next to the girl of his dreams, in silence. A smile spread across his face but then slowly faded as he thought about what Natsume had just confessed.

"Why?" he asked after a while. She had known that Sasayan liked her for the past six years, so why did she just now suddenly decide that she liked him back. "Why now, after all this time?"

He did not expect himself to react this way, but he had to know.

She looked over at him, a bit confused by his question. _Shouldn't he be happy that I like him?_ she wondered to herself.

"I don't know, Sasayan."

He was silent. There was a part of him that wondered if she really meant what she was saying or whether she was just saying that she liked him because him being with her helped to ease the loneliness inside. He hoped that it was not the latter, but he could not be sure.

She thought about it for a while.

"I guess it's been a long time coming," she finally said. "I think I started liking you about a year ago, around the time when you got me Mittens. I think I realized then that you are one of the only people I know who I am sure I can rely on no matter what. And, you are one of the only guys I know who I can actually, truly, call my friend, besides Haru of course. But on top of that, you are kind, nonjudgmental, understanding, and sweet... and you have your priorities straight. So, when I really started thinking about it, I quickly realized how lucky I was to have you always beside me."

Sasayan smiled, realizing that Natsume's feelings for him were deeper than he had imagined.

"Plus," she continued, "what happened between Yuzan and I really helped me to recognize the difference between actually liking someone and simply wanting to be with someone because I'm lonely."

The smile on Sasayan's face quickly faded.

"What happened between you and Yuzan?" he asked. The tension in his voice was undeniable.

Suddenly realizing what she was saying, Natsume froze. She was not sure what to tell Sasayan. She wanted to tell him the truth, but she was sure that, if she did, Sasayan and Yuzan could never be friends again. And she did not want that to happen.

"Oh, I sort of thought I liked him for a while but then realized that I was just confused," she said after a while.

He was suspicious. He knew that she and Yuzan had spent a lot of time together until only recently when he suddenly stopped coming to New York.

"That's it?" he asked, hoping that she'd tell him more. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to know more, but something about her explanation did not sit right with him.

"Well..." Natsume did not want to lie to Sasayan so she figured she would tell him the truth in as vague a way as possible. "Things almost got really confusing between Yuzan and I because I did not know how to properly set boundaries in our friendship. Fortunately, Yuzan was able to stop himself before it was too late."

Sasayan was skeptical about Yuzan's ability to control himself considering his reputation but then decided that it would probably be best to just believe whatever Natsume was telling him. He supposed that it was better that he did not know all the details.

"Okay..." he replied, unsure of her story.

"Sasayan," she started but then hesitated, unsure of where her sentence was going. "Don't be mad at Yuzan," she finally said.

"Okay." Natsume defending Yuzan made Sasayan even more upset than he was before.

_What really happened between Natsume and Yuzan?_ Sasayan thought to himself. He wondered if it was as bad as he imagined. He felt his heart begin to race as he imagined Natsume and Yuzan together. His breathing became heavy as anger rose within him. He was sure that, if anything, it was Yuzan's fault, not Natsume's.

Trying to calm himself down, he took a deep breath and then slowly let it out.

"I'm going to head home first," he announced after calming down a little.

He stood up to leave but Natsume continued,

"Sasayan?" Natsume could tell he was upset and did not want to further infuriate him but she wondered, "Are you mad at me?"

He looked down at her, her eyes filled with sadness.

"No, Nat," he replied. And even if he was, he could never stay mad at her with those eyes. "I just need some time to think."

"Okay. I'll see you at home then."

He kissed her on the forehead and then bid Shizuku goodbye before walking home, alone. Luckily, Yuzan was still on the phone.

Shizuku looked up at Natsume as she reentered the living room with her plate of cake.

"You like the cake?" Natsume asked as she sat down next to her friend.

"Oh, yeah." She had unconsciously eaten every layer of cake on her plate. "Everything okay with Sasayan?"

"Yeah... I told him."

"Told him?"

"I told him the truth," Natsume clarified.

"How did he take it?" Shizuku asked.

"I think he needs some time to think."

"Think about what?" Yuzan said as he came back down the stairs. He seemed happier than usual.

"Oh, I told Sasayan," Natsume repeated for Yuzan.

He smiled. "That's really good. I'm sure he is very happy."

"I told him everything," she admitted.

"_Everything_?" Yuzan asked, making sure he heard her correctly.

"Yes."

He chuckled. "Guess Sasayan's never coming _here_ again."

Shizuku looked at them, confused. She half wondered what they were talking about but then decided that it was not her business. _It must be something personal, that has nothing to do with me._

"I should go home too," she said after some time.

"Oh, Mitty, stay!" Natsume pleaded. "We don't get to see you often so it would be really nice to spend more time with you."

"Maybe tomorrow. It's getting late and I have to wake up early," she replied.

"Oh." Natsume did not want her friend leave but she also didn't want her to be tired for work the next day either. "I understand."

They walked Shizuku down to the street and hailed a cab for her before returning upstairs.

"I've been thinking a lot about what you said Natsume," Yuzan said as they re-entered his apartment.

"What did I say?" She had no idea what he was talking about, but it seemed important.

"About there being someone out there for me."

"Oh." Her eyes shot up at him, excited. "Is there someone you like?"

"Yeah," he admitted. He sat down on his couch and stared up at the chandelier above them in a daydream. "There is."

"That's really great! You should tell her," Natsume suggested. She knew that Yuzan had a difficult time with women and was really happy that he had found someone who he could, perhaps, be with.

"I don't know..." he replied, looking down at his phone. He flipped through his photos and then stopped and stared at a picture.

Natsume leaned over to see the photo he was staring at. It was a picture of a girl. She had long black wavy hair, black eyes, and a cute smile. She looked as if she was staring up at him, wrapped inside a blanket, in bed.

"Is that her?"

"Yeah," he replied, still half in a daze.

"She's cute," Natsume said.

"Yeah. But I don't know... I'm sure she does not like me," Yuzan said as he put his phone away.

Natsume looked over at him, confused.

"Didn't you take that photo?" she asked.

"Yeah."

They were silent. It was obvious what Natsume was thinking and Yuzan wanted to explain but was not sure how.

"It's complicated," he finally said as he picked up his half eaten cake and put it away in the refrigerator. "I'm sure she just thinks I'm fun to be with or something."

"How long have you two been together?"

"We've been seeing each other for about four months, but I've known her forever," he replied.

"That sounds promising."

He chuckled. Unfortunately, he had been seeing other people as well and he was sure that she knew.

"Not really."

"Yuzan, if you like her, you should stop seeing those other girls," Natsume suggested, reading his mind.

He looked over at her a smiled. It was nice to hear the truth so plainly every once in a while, no matter how much it hurt.

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind."

"I'm serious. Stop it, okay?" she said, looking over at him sternly. She knew that he could be a good boyfriend and wanted him to find a relationship that was meaningful. "I'm going to go now."

"Okay."

He walked her downstairs and then decided to go watch a movie alone. It helped to distract him from the tormenting thoughts in his mind.

* * *

The next morning, Natsume woke up early to make breakfast for Sasayan. Smelling the pancakes she was making, Sasayan got out of bed and went into the kitchen.

"Good morning," he said as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Sasayan, you're up," she replied with a smile.

Her beaming smile made him forget all the worries he had about Natsume and Yuzan the night before.

"I'm sorry I overreacted yesterday. I just needed some time to think things through."

"That's okay Sasayan. I understand. I'm sorry that it ever happened to begin with. And I'm sorry that I dragged you into it. I knew it would be difficult for you to know, but I couldn't lie to you so I'm glad I told you instead of holding it in."

"Can I help you with those?" he offered, ignoring his urge to ask her more. He decided that it was best for him not to know the details and to simply choose to trust that Natsume and Yuzan did not do more than she said they did.

"Sure."

He helped Natsume pour the pancake batter she prepared into the heart shaped molds she had neatly placed on the pan.

"Cute, huh?" she said as the pancakes formed into hearts. She took over and flipped them before neatly placing them onto a plate.

Sasayan smiled, wrapping his arms around Natsume's waist.

"Not as cute as you are."

"Ew, gross!" she teased, but then turned around and kissed him on the lips.

His heart beat uncontrollably as he kissed her back.

"I love you Sasayan," she whispered between her kisses.

"I love you too Natsume."

* * *

That night, after Day 5 of training was finally over, Shizuku found Haru waiting for her in the lobby at work.

"Haru, how long have you been sitting here?"

"I don't know. All day?" he replied. To him, it was the most normal thing in the world. He had sat down hours ago and just happened to still be sitting there when she came down the elevator.

She looked down at him and smiled. He was just as odd as he was four years ago and she could not deny that she still had feelings for him. She reached over and played with his hair as he looked up at her with a smile. He liked it when she played with his hair and missed her touch so much that he grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her and burring himself in her chest.

Startled, she felt her body stiffen up. Then, regaining her composure, she pushed herself out of his hold.

"Come on, let's go," she said as she turned and walked out of the lobby into the street.

He followed her outside and hailed a cab.

"Laguardia, please," Haru said to the cab driver as they got in.

Shizuku had no idea where that was, but she figured she'd go along for the ride. She trusted that Haru would not take her somewhere dangerous so she did not bother to question him. Plus, she was so drained from staying out late two nights in a row in addition to training all day that she did not really care.

And, about ten minutes into the ride, she fell asleep against the window. Haru looked over at her, admiring how cute she was before pulling her over toward him so that her head rested in his lap.

About an hour later, they arrived at the airport.

Haru paid the cab driver and woke Shizuku up.

"We're here."

"Oh okay," she sleepily replied.

He helped her out of the cab and into the terminal. Still groggy, she did not realize where they were until a TSA agent demanded she take her shoes off for the scanner.

_Where are we going_? she thought to herself as she stepped into the machine.

She figured she was dreaming and mechanically made her way to the gate and then onto the plane with Haru.

And, as soon as they took their seats, Shizuku fell back asleep next to Haru.


	12. Part 1 - Chapter 11 - San Diego, CA

**Thanks Anonymous guest for the feedback! Glad you are enjoying the story. :)**

* * *

Five and a half hours later, Shizuku woke up to the plane touching down on the runway.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of the Captain and the rest of the crew, I would like to welcome you to San Diego. The local time here is 8:45PM and the weather is a perfect 68 degrees."

_San Diego?_ Shizuku thought to herself, _What are we doing in San Diego?_

She looked over at Haru who had gotten up to grab their bags from the overhead compartment.

"Looks like you slept through the entire flight," he said as he passed her her bag.

"Where are we?"

"San Diego. Are you okay?"

He was a little concerned that after taking a cab to the airport, going through security, and sitting on a plane for the past five hours, Shizuku did not seem to be aware of having been on a plane at all.

"Yeah," she replied, a little uneasy.

She had a lot of work to do and wasn't sure what they were doing in San Diego. But, since she was with Haru, she figured that everything was going to be okay. She reminded herself that she had her laptop on her and her books to study, soothing her worries about work.

"Don't worry, we'll get you back to New York by Monday morning."

"We?" she said, confused.

But he did not respond. Instead, he grabbed her arm and they deplaned, walking out to the palm-tree lined taxi line outside the airport. Then, they took a cab to The Lodge at Torrey Pines.

When they arrived at the hotel, they went straight to a suite on the second floor where Sasayan and Natsume was waiting for them.

"You guys made it!" Natsume said when they finally arrived. "I thought you might have missed your flight considering the rush hour traffic in New York."

"Nope. Our cabbie knew what he was doing," Haru replied.

"What are you all doing here?" Shizuku asked, confused. She felt like she was still dreaming but she had a feeling she wasn't.

"We came to see Haru off," Sasayan explained. "We do this every time he goes on a trip since he's usually gone for at least a month or two."

"Six weeks to be exact this time."

"Lucky for us, Yuzan has connections here so we get to stay here for free," Natsume added.

"Well, technically Yuzan pays for it," Haru noted. "But I don't think he cares."

"Oh, is he here as well?" Sasayan asked, half hoping that he wasn't.

"No," Haru replied. "He said he needed to fly back to London for something urgent."

Shizuku sat down on the couch where Sasayan and Natsume were watching TV while Haru put their bags in their room before coming back outside and sitting down next to her.

"I'm so happy we are all back together again," Natsume said as she browsed some pamphlets on local attractions in San Diego. "Tomorrow, we can go to Sea World and have dinner by the beach in La Jolla. Then, the next day, we can go down to the tidal pools. I hear they are very nice."

"We should check the tides," Haru suggested, looking up the tide conditions on the NOAA website.

He was silent for a long time.

"How does it look?" Sasayan asked after a while.

Still staring at his phone, he did not respond.

"Haru," Natsume said, nudging her friend. "How do the tides look?"

Finally, he looked up at them with the biggest smile they had seen on him in a long time, except for when he's staring at Shizuku.

"There's red tide tonight!" he exclaimed.

They all looked at him, confused. They had no idea what he was talking about.

"Red tide?"

"What is that?"

"No time to explain, let's go."

He dragged them downstairs to the car and forced Sasayan to drive to the beach. They parked the car on the side of the road and then climbed down the rocks to the sand.

"It's beautiful!" Natsume gasped, looking out at the glowing blue waves crashing against the beach. She grabbed Sasayan's hand and pulled him toward the water to get a closer look.

"What is it?" Sasayan asked as they admired the water.

"Lingulodinium polyedrum," Haru replied.

"Okay, I don't know why I asked." He turned back around and hugged Natsume as they continued to watch the waves together.

Haru reached down and took Shizuku's hand.

"Isn't the ocean amazing?" he said as he pulled her closer to the water.

"Yeah." She looked out at the waves and had to admit that they were rather magnificent. It was like nothing she had ever seen before.

"They are tiny organisms that light up when jostled," he explained, refraining himself from going into more detail.

She smiled. "It is very nice."

"Hold on," he suddenly said. He had an idea.

Quickly, he ran back up to the car and grabbed the empty bottle of Coke from the cup holder and then ran into the ocean to collect a sample.

"Haru, what are you doing?!" Natsume cried out when she saw him run into the ocean.

"Don't worry Natsume, I'm just collecting a sample."

Shizuku let out a soft laugh. It was just like Haru to do something so strange.

After about an hour or two by the beach, the four friends went back to the hotel to wash up and go to bed.

* * *

The next day, they spent most of their time at Sea World. Haru was so happy that he got a chance to explain each and every one of the sea animals there to Shizuku that he could not stop talking.

"Which one is your favorite?" he asked as their day came to an end.

She thought about it for a while.

"The sea turtles I guess."

"Okay."

He disappeared for a while and then reappeared with a giant stuffed sea turtle in his arms.

"It's not nearly as big as they are in real life but it is the biggest one I could find. Just pretend it's a baby sea turtle," he said, holding out the turtle for her. "Did you know that a Leatherback sea turtle could weigh up to a ton? Imagine that!"

She looked up at him and smiled. It was nice to see Haru so happy.

"Which animal is your favorite?" she asked, wondering if he could choose one out of the million animals that lived in the sea.

"Hmm," he thought about it for a long time. "That is a tough question."

He was silent as they made their way back to the car and to the restaurant Natsume had made reservations for in La Jolla. The day was more fun than Shizuku expected. And, as they sat by the window and watched as the sun set over the Pacific Ocean, she smiled.

It was magnificent.

"Manatees I suppose," Haru said to Shizuku after they finished eating dinner.

"Manatees?" She had no idea what he was talking about.

"After thinking through all the known creatures of the sea, if you forced me to choose one as my favorite, I'd choose the Manatee."

"Oh." She let out a soft laugh. _That's what he's talking about._ "Why?"

"They are like giant cows of the sea."

"Oh." That did not seem like a great reason to her, but she supposed that it didn't really matter.

"They are nearly extinct though," he continued. "But there are still some down in Florida."

"Have you seen one?" she asked, pretending to be interested.

"Yes. There is one place where you can go swim with them! I will take you next time."

"Okay," she replied. She was so happy to be with Haru that she did not really care where he took her, so long as they were together.

"And the sea turtles too in Hawaii," Haru added. He could not wait to take Shizuku diving to go see the sea turtles in Hawaii.

She smiled. "Okay Haru."

After dinner, Natsume and Sasayan went to bed early and Haru took Shizuku down to the beach to listen to the waves.

"Haru?" Shizuku said as they walked along the beach.

"Yes?"

"Why did you take me here?" she asked. She was not sure why he, after having met someone else, still insisted on spending so much time with her.

"Huh?" He did not understand the question. "Because I like the ocean and it's a nice warm night out."

"No, Haru. I mean, why did you take me here to San Diego?"

"Oh, because I love you Shizuku and I wanted to see you before I had to go away for a long time."

She was silent. It did not make any sense to her. Did he love her and someone else at the same time?

"Are you not happy to be here?" he asked after a while.

He stopped walking and looked down at her to see if he could somehow figure out what was going on in her mind.

Looking up at him, she forced a smile.

"I am," she admitted. But there was still that lingering doubt. "It's just... I thought there was someone else."

"Someone else?"

"You said you met someone who changed your life," she explained.

He thought about it for a while. _When did I say that?_ he thought to himself.

Then, after suddenly realizing what she was talking about, he laughed.

"Oh, yeah. My adviser!" he explained. "I met him on a fishing boat a little over three years ago. And, after spending two and a half months out at sea with him, he convinced me to go to uni. He even helped me to get a full scholarship at Harvard."

"Oh."

She finally understood.

And she could not believe how stupid she was for thinking that he had found another girl.

He sat down on the sand and pulled her down next to him.

"I love the sound of the ocean," he said as they laid down and looked up at the stars. Normally, she would not enjoy laying in the sand, but considering what Haru had just told her, she did not mind.

They lay there for a while, admiring the beauty of the night sky.

Finally, her life felt complete again.

Peace settled in her heart as they walked back to the hotel. And, even though she knew that Haru could not always physically be there with her, she understood that no matter what, and no matter where either of them were, they would always be together.

* * *

The next morning, they had breakfast at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography before heading down to the tidal pools to look at the barnacles and crabs that lived in the pools.

Then, they went to the San Diego Bay to see Haru off.

"I'll see you in six weeks. I promise, I'll come visit before the semester starts," he said to Shizuku after kissing her goodbye. "Yuzan promised he'd take care of you until then."

"Okay," she replied. "I love you Haru."

He boarded the research vessel and then stood on deck and waved to Shizuku, Natsume, and Sasayan on the pier. They waved back and then waited for his boat to disappear into the horizon before making their way to Hillcrest for lunch.

That night, after spending the rest of the day in San Diego together, the three friends took the red-eye flight back to New York.

* * *

_Author's Note:_

_This is the end of Part 1. I hope you enjoyed it._

_Note, Part 2 will have a lot of Yuzan/OC, which was not the original intent of this story but as I was writing Part 1, it sort of dawned on me that that was where this was leading. Yuzan is one of my favorite characters so I hope that you will enjoy it. :)_

_Don't worry, Shizuku, Haru, Natsume, and Sasayan will be in Part 2 as well._

_Thanks for reading!_


	13. Part 2 - Chapter 1 - London, UK

**PART 2 - LONDON, UK**

* * *

After six weeks of training in New York, and spending almost every night hanging out with Natsume and Sasayan, Shizuku took a seven hour flight from New York to London.

As promised, Yuzan, or more accurately Andou-san, was there to pick her up when she arrived. He took her bags and led her to a matte black Tesla, opening the rear passenger door for her.

"Thank you," she said as she got into the car.

"Master Yuzan has instructed that I give you these keys." He handed a set of keys to Shizuku before starting the car. "The electronic key fob is for the front door as well as the gym and the pool, the funny shaped key is for the flat, and the small one is for the mailbox."

Shizuku took the keys and thanked him. "Is Yuzan not around?" she asked.

"He is tied up in a meeting, but should be back by the time we arrive."

"Oh, okay."

Shizuku stared out the window at yet another new city as Andou-san made their way to her new home. When they arrived, he helped take her bags up to the flat and then left.

The flat was surprisingly more beautiful than Yuzan's New York loft. It again had two stories, giant windows, a balcony, and a beautiful stainless steel kitchen. But it was much larger than the New York loft and included a skylight, which during the day lit up the entire flat.

A pretty Japanese girl with wavy black hair and round eyes came down the stairs as Shizuku took off her jacket and hung it on the coat rack near the door. The girl was about two or three inches taller than Shizuku and was in a light pink dinosaur hoodie, black yoga pants, and fuzzy Totoro slippers.

"Hi, you must be Haru's girlfriend," she said as she walked over to Shizuku to greet her.

"Oh, yeah... I'm Shizuku," she replied, a bit surprised to find someone in Yuzan's flat. "Do you know Haru?"

"Yes." Shizuku was half expecting her to explain how she knows Haru, but she did not. "I'm Asami. Yuzan's still at some dinner meeting but he should be back soon. Let me show you to Haru's room so that you can get settled."

"Thanks. Do you live here as well?" Shizuku asked.

Asami chuckled. "Practically."

Shizuku shrugged. She assumed that Asami was one of Yuzan's many girlfriends.

Asami led Shizuku across the beautiful living room and down the hallway to Haru's room.

"The first door to your right is Yuzan's home office. Next to that is just a storage closet and then a bathroom. On your left is Haru's room, which I suppose is now yours," she said, pointing out the rooms Shizuku should be aware of. "You've already seen the living room and the kitchen. Upstairs, there is a lounge area and Yuzan's room."

She hesitated, thinking about something, and then continued,

"Make yourself at home. All the rooms and everything in the kitchen is pretty much free game, except Yuzan's office, which he doesn't like people going into."

"Okay. Thanks," Shizuku replied.

Then Asami went back out into the living room, leaving Shizuku alone in Haru's room.

The room was minimally decorated with a king sized bed, a flat screen TV, a desk, a bookcase overflowing with books, and a daybed by the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the outer wall. On the inner wall by the desk, there hung a giant map of the ocean floor. There was also a walk-in closet with some of Haru's clothes in it, but ample space for Shizuku's, a bathroom with a rain shower and a tub, as well as a small balcony where she could sit and read during the day. From the balcony, she could see a beautiful courtyard and, below that, an indoor pool.

On the desk, there was a picture of her and Haru as well as one of Haru, Natsume, and Sasayan, one of his aunt, and one of Micchan.

She picked up the picture of her and Haru and stared at it for a while. It was a picture Sasayan had taken from one of their trips in high school. She smiled, thinking about how nice it would be to be able to see Haru every day like she used to.

Shaking her thoughts of Haru from her head, she opened her suitcase and began to unpack. She pushed Haru's clothes to one side of the closet and then neatly hung hers up on the opposite side. Then, she took out her books and the glass bottle of Coke filled with sea water from San Diego and placed them on the desk before taking her laptop out and going back outside to accompany Asami.

When she got back to the living room, Yuzan was sitting on the couch in a suit next to Asami.

"Shizuku, you made it! Is the room okay?" he asked when she emerged from the hallway.

"Yes, it's fine. Thank you," she replied.

"Did you have dinner? I brought back some sweets," he said, holding out a box of chocolate croissants.

"Do you eat anything besides sweets?" Shizuku plainly asked.

Asami laughed. "Nope. I think that pretty much sums up his entire diet!" she joked, half teasing Yuzan.

He looked over at her with a smirk before looking back up at Shizuku and replying, "Of course I eat other things as well. I just prefer things sweet, like Asami."

"Oh, please, Yuzan," she replied, rolling her eyes, before getting up and walking over to the kitchen.

Shizuku followed her, hoping to find some real food to eat. She had not eaten since she left New York and her stomach was beginning to growl.

"We have some left over Chinese," Asami offered. "I can heat it up for you if you want."

"Thanks. I can do it myself," Shizuku replied, taking the box from her hand.

"Sorry, we didn't really plan for dinner."

"That's okay."

Asami went back out to the living room and sat down on the couch next to Yuzan.

"Where were we?"

"I was about to kick your butt in Call of Duty," Yuzan said playfully.

"Challenge accepted," she replied, picking up a controller.

Shizuku heated up her food and then sat down next to the two on the couch.

After finishing her food, she watched them play for a while but then decided that their game was not interesting, excusing herself to go study in her room. It was Saturday night and she was to start her new job on Monday, so she wanted to make sure she had all the training material down before her first day of work.

* * *

Asami and Yuzan continued to play for a few rounds before she decided she was too sleepy to continue. She laid down on the couch, resting her head on one of the throw pillows as he continued to play online. He smiled as he admired her peacefully sleeping on the other end of the couch. Between rounds, he got up and went to the closet, taking out a small microfiber blanket for Asami. Gently, he placed the blanket on top of her before continuing to play.

After a while, he decided to go to sleep as well. Carefully, he picked up Asami, brought her upstairs to his room, and then tucked her in before washing up and joining her in bed.

Since returning from New York, as Natsume had suggested, Yuzan had not seen any of his girlfriends besides Asami and he sort of wanted to tell her how he felt. But something about the way she always brushed off his compliments made him rethink his confession. Yes, it was true that she spent a lot of time with him. But besides that, she did not seem all too interested. He supposed that it was because she knew that he had other girlfriends but, even after he stopped seeing the other girls, things did not seem to change much.

He wondered if, after seeing other people for so many months, she would ever be able to accept him properly.

He hoped so. But he could not be sure.

The next morning, Yuzan woke up to Asami's kisses. It seemed that she had waken up before him and wanted to play.

He smiled as he kissed her back and pulled her on top of him. As usual, they had a good time but he felt like he wanted something more. He began feeling that way about five or six months ago and it seemed that the more time he spent with her, the more he wanted from her.

What exactly he wanted, he was not sure.

"I love you," he whispered as she cuddled up against him afterwards.

She chuckled, before sarcastically replying, "_Sure_."

His heart sank at the sarcasm in her response. Clearly, she was not convinced of the fact that he loved her.

They were silent for a long time.

"You're dangerous," she finally said as she got up to take a shower.

_Dangerous?_ he thought to himself. He did not understand.

After washing up, they went downstairs to have breakfast.

Then, she left.

* * *

A few hours later, Shizuku found Yuzan in the living room, alone.

"Good morning," she said as she made her way over to the kitchen.

"Oh, Shizuku. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, the bed is very comfortable. What are you doing up so early?" she asked. It was 6:45AM and she was not used to people being up before she was.

"What are you talking about Shizuku? It's nearly noon."

She looked down at her watch to confirm. "No, it's 6:45AM."

"Did you change your watch?"

"Oh."

She grabbed a chocolate croissant from the kitchen and then sat down next to Yuzan.

"Is Asami still sleeping?" she asked, still curious about Asami and Haru.

"No. She went to work." The thought of Asami made Yuzan sad.

"Work? Isn't it Sunday?"

He chuckled. "Yes. She has some crazy deadline coming up."

"Oh."

"Yeah..." he replied, lost in a daydream.

After a couple minutes, he snapped out of it and looked over at Shizuku.

"Want to go grab some lunch?"

"I just ate," she replied, holding up the partially eaten chocolate croissant in her hand.

"Oh, well, let's go for a walk then."

"Okay." She could not believe how late it was and was a little upset at herself for wasting the whole day sleeping. She had intended to explore the city a little that day so a walk seemed fitting.

She finished her breakfast and then went downstairs with Yuzan. He showed her the way to her office before they slowly made their way down along the river to the Big Ben. Then, they headed up to Carnaby Street to do some shopping.

They shopped for a few hours before Yuzan suggested they stop by one of his favorite cafes for afternoon tea.

"Hey Shizuku?" Yuzan said as they sat down at the cafe to eat.

"Yeah?"

"What do you think of Asami?" he asked.

Shizuku looked over at Yuzan, a bit confused. She had only met Asami yesterday and did not think much of her.

"I don't know. She seems nice," she replied.

He was silent for a while.

"Do you think she likes me?" he continued after some time.

"Ah." She understood. He was not really asking about Asami so much as he was asking about how Asami may feel about him. "Well, she likes you enough to hang out with you I suppose. Although, if I were her, I wouldn't."

He looked over at her, a bit surprised by the directness of her answer.

"Why not?"

"Because, if you really like someone, you would not go and be with other people."

As usual, Shizuku's response was dead on.

"I know," he replied. He stared down into his tea and then downed the entire cup before looking back up at Shizuku with a smile. "Let's go."

He dragged her shopping some more and then they picked up dinner on their way back to the flat.

Shizuku stayed up for a while, studying, while Yuzan tried to get in contact with Asami.

But, that night, Asami did not return his phone calls.


	14. Part 2 - Chapter 2 - Yuzan and Haru

After days of not hearing from Asami, Yuzan began to sulk. He locked himself up in his office and distracted himself with work until Haru arrived in London Friday night.

Shizuku worked long hours, so Yuzan took his brother out for dinner.

"How was the trip?" he asked as they sat down at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal to eat.

"It was great." Yuzan toned out as Haru went on and on about his research. He continued talking for what seemed like forever until he finally realized that Yuzan was not paying any attention.

He nudged his brother, pulling him out of his daydream.

"How is Shizuku?" he asked, changing the subject.

Relieved that Haru seemed to have finally stopped talking about fish and coral reef, Yuzan looked up at his brother and smiled.

"She's fine. I rarely see her," he replied.

"Oh."

They were silent for a while and Haru could tell that something was wrong.

"Are you sulking again, brother?" he asked, forcing himself to care.

"No," Yuzan lied.

Haru growled. It was obvious that his brother was lying.

"What happened this time?" Haru asked, although he did not _really_ care to know. He supposed that, whatever it was, it was probably something Yuzan had done to himself.

Yuzan hesitated but then admitted, "It's Asami."

Haru was silent. He glared at his brother, annoyed.

"I told you not to get involved with her."

"Haru, I couldn't help it," Yuzan replied defensively.

"That's what you say about every girl!" Haru snapped. "You're just like Dad."

"I'm not like Dad!" He could not believe that Haru would even suggest that he was like their Father, the worst Father and biggest womanizer in the world. "Don't ever say that again."

"I'm only saying what's obviously true."

"It's not true."

Their first course came and they ate in silence.

"See, this is why we can't get along," Yuzan said after two or three courses.

"Why? Because I actually tell you the truth?" Haru replied, glaring at Yuzan. He hated how Yuzan always made it seem like Haru was the one at fault.

"No. Because you're no help."

"Fine," Haru relented. "What do you want?"

Yuzan smiled. He knew that it was only a matter of time that Haru would cave and agree to do whatever he wanted, no matter how much he put up a fight in the process.

"How come Asami doesn't seem to get it when I tell her that I love her?" Yuzan asked.

"Yuzan, you can't just tell a girl that you love her and not show her that you do."

"I _do_ show her," he insisted.

"Yeah? How?" Haru asked, skeptical.

"I share my sweets with her."

"Buying something that _you_ like and then giving a part of it to her isn't showing her that you love her!" Haru replied.

"Okay, then how am I supposed to show her that I love her then?" Yuzan asked. "Does Shizuku know that you love her?"

"Of course. I do things for her and I try to understand her."

Yuzan thought about it for a while. He had no idea what doing things for Asami and trying to understand her corresponded to in actions.

"Unlike you, it's not all about myself," Haru added.

Ignoring Haru's comment, Yuzan stared down at his dessert but was surprisingly not in the mood for sweets.

"What kind of stuff should I do?" he asked, pushing his dessert to the side.

"I don't know. Depends on the girl. From what I read, girls like flowers and chocolate, nice dinners, thoughtful dates, etc. Maybe a weekend trip somewhere."

Yuzan thought about it for a while. He supposed that he could buy Asami flowers and chocolate. He liked chocolate.

"Okay," Yuzan replied. It seemed he had a plan.

Haru sighed, convinced that his brother had no idea what he was doing. _Although_, he thought to himself,_ if there is someone Yuzan wants to change for, there may be hope for him yet_.

* * *

After dinner, Haru walked over to Shizuku's office to see if she was still at work.

She was not, so he went home and found her in his room, working. She looked up at him as he entered the room and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was Haru.

"Haru, you're back from your trip," she said, happy to see him.

Then she looked back down at her computer. She had a report due the next morning and could not allow herself to be distracted by Haru.

"Yeah." He walked over to her and kissed her on the forehead. "Are you still working?"

"Yeah. I have to get these numbers to my VP by 8AM tomorrow."

"Oh," Haru replied, a bit confused. "But it's Saturday tomorrow."

"Yeah." Shizuku was not sure what the difference was. Her VP did not care what day of the week it was. All he cared about was the work getting done.

Shrugging it off, Haru pulled up a chair and sat beside Shizuku as she continued to work. Simply spending time with her, no matter what they were doing, made him happy.

After an hour or two, Shizuku decided to take a nap.

"Wake me up in an hour, okay?" she said as she laid down in the bed.

"Okay."

Haru kissed her goodnight and then tucked her in, wrapping her up in his blankets. Then, he waited until she went to sleep before finishing up her report. Numbers made sense to him so it was not very difficult for him to finish culling through her data and then neatly plopping the numbers into her report template. Plus, having been presented these types of reports at the meetings Yuzan forces him to attend, he had an idea as to what her VP was looking for.

Then, he set an alarm for 7AM and went to sleep next to Shizuku.

He wrapped his arms around her and the ball of blankets he had wrapped her up in. He had waited over four years to hold her again and he felt that it was worth every second of waiting.

He smiled, remembering all that she had done for him; she had freed him of his sadness and pushed him toward his destiny.

Without her, he would probably still be in Japan with Micchan at the batting cages, which wouldn't have been so bad although it would not have been nearly as awesome as spending months on end on a research vessel, diving to collect samples of the ever dwindling coral reefs. Now, he felt his life had meaning and purpose, something that he could not say about his life before Shizuku.

Plus, he now also had friends.

The next morning, Shizuku woke up at 6:45AM, frantic. She looked over and found Haru soundly asleep next to her on the bed. He was really cute when he slept but she was too angry at him to care.

_Why didn't he wake me up like I told him to!? _she thought to herself, livid.

Quickly, she untangled herself from the blankets Haru had wrapped her in and went to the desk.

Her laptop was off.

She pressed the 'on' button and searched for her files. She had a little over an hour to finish her report, which was clearly not enough time. Frantically, she opened her files and was surprised to find that her report was completed. And, not only was it completed, but it was done far better than she could have done herself.

She looked over at Haru, annoyed but thankful at the same time.

She was thankful that he had finished her report, which meant that she had time to spend with him, but was irritated by the fact that he had done such a good job without any formal training or understanding of her work.

Either way, she supposed that the work was complete and that she might as well send it off. She spot-checked it before emailing it to her VP.

Five minutes later, his response was more positive than she could have ever anticipated,

_Looks good, Shizuku. See you Monday._

_Monday?_ she thought to herself. That meant she had _all weekend_ to spend with Haru.

She looked over at him and then decided to crawl back into bed and sleep. She had not had a full night's sleep in the past week and was grateful for the fact that, because of Haru, she had slept nearly six hours the night before. She cuddled up against him and closed her eyes.

But, as soon as she closed her eyes, his alarm went off.

Quickly, she got up to turn it off, but he had already awaken.

"Oh, Shizuku, you need to submit your report," he said groggily, forcing his eyes open.

"Already did," she replied as she brushed his hair out of his face.

He smiled. "Oh, that's good."

"Thanks Haru." She smiled at him, melting his heart in the process.

They were silent.

After a couple of minutes, he turned over and grabbed her, wrapping his arms tightly around her.

"I love you Shizuku," he happily said.

"You're suffocating me," she replied, struggling to talk.

"Oh..." He did not want to be overbearing.

"Haru..."

"I'm sorry," he said. "I don't mean to be overbearing. I just..."

"No, I mean you are literally suffocating me."

"Oh." He loosened his grip and then held her gently in his arms a while before they decided to get up and go for breakfast.

* * *

They went outside and found Yuzan sitting in the living room, reading magazines.

"We're going to breakfast," Haru informed his brother as he put on his shoes.

"Oh, where are you going?" Yuzan asked.

"No idea."

Yuzan got his coat and, taking his magazines with him, followed Haru and Shizuku down to the street.

"There's a good place a few blocks over for some coffee and chocolate bread," he suggested, leading them to a cafe about three blocks away.

Annoyed, Haru knew that he had no choice but to follow.

Yuzan ordered for the three of them and they sat down at a table outside to eat.

"What are you reading?" Shizuku asked, noticing the magazines in his hand.

"_Women's Weekly_. I express ordered every copy from the past six months."

Haru chuckled. "Why are you reading _Women's Weekly_?"

"I need to figure out what women like. This one girl wrote an article about how her boyfriend surprised her with a weekend trip to the Greek Islands. Maybe I should do that."

"I don't know, Yuzan... you may want to start with something... smaller," Shizuku suggested.

Yuzan thought about it for a while but had no idea what 'smaller' meant.

"A trip to the Greek Islands sounds nice," Haru noted. "We can rent a sail boat and go fishing."

"We can take Dad's yacht," Yuzan suggested.

Haru glared at his brother. He didn't want anything to do with his Dad, yacht or no yacht.

"That would be nice, but I have to work," Shizuku said, killing their fun.

"Okay. Something closer then," Haru said to Shizuku.

"I thought we were trying to figure out what _I_ can do for Asami," Yuzan interrupted.

"It's not always about you, Yuzan." Haru could not stand how Yuzan always made everything about himself.

Then, ignoring his brother, Haru picked up a copy of 'Time Out London' and flipped through the pages.

"What about a dinner cruise?" he suggested.

Shizuku thought about it for a while. A dinner cruise seemed sensible.

"Okay."

"Great," Yuzan said, inviting himself. "I'll call Asami."

"Yuzan-" Haru began to object but was promptly interrupted by Shizuku grabbing his arm.

"Haru, we should all go together," she said, deciding for them. Shizuku could tell that Yuzan was going crazy without Asami and figured that it would be good for everyone to go together.

Haru was silent. If Shizuku wanted Yuzan and Asami to go then he supposed that they should go, no matter how much he preferred otherwise.

* * *

After breakfast, Yuzan disappeared and Haru and Shizuku spent the rest of the day walking around the city alone. Then, he took her to the London Eye and they rode up above the city together.

It wasn't something that Shizuku would have normally done on her own, but she had to admit, it was nice.


	15. Part 2 - Chapter 3 - Flowers & Chocolate

As usual, Asami did not answer Yuzan's phone calls.

So, after trying few times, he decided to just go to her apartment to look for her. On his way over, he picked up two dozen red roses and two boxes of chocolates, one for himself and one for Asami.

When he got to her apartment, he rang her doorbell and waited for her to answer.

"Hello?" her voice called out from the intercom about 30-seconds later.

"Asami, it's me, Yuzan."

"Oh..." He could tell by her tone of voice that she was not particularly happy that he was there.

He hesitated but then asked, "Can I come up?"

"I'm busy," she curtly replied.

"What are you doing?"

"Yuzan, I told you. I'm working."

"Oh... but I brought you sweets," he said, hoping that that would convince her to let him up.

There was a long silence, but he could tell that she was still on the intercom.

"Fine," she finally decided and then buzzed him up.

He greeted her doorman and then went up to the fifth floor, to her apartment. Her door was slightly open so he let himself in and found her at her kitchen table, working.

"You really are working," he said as he put the flowers down on the table. "I brought you flowers."

She looked up at him, confused. "Why?"

Ignoring her comment, and the pain in his heart from her reaction, he added,

"And some chocolate."

"Oh, thanks." Chocolate seemed more like the Yuzan she was used to than flowers.

He sat down at the table across from her and opened his chocolates to eat them.

"Not bad," he noted.

She was silent.

"Asami?" he said after some time.

"Yes?" she replied, obviously annoyed.

"Never mind."

"What is it Yuzan?" she demanded. It was impossible for her to concentrate on work when Yuzan was staring at her from across the table and she was up against a tight deadline so there was little time for her to waste talking to or even thinking about Yuzan.

"When's the project due?" he carefully asked.

"Yesterday."

She mumbled something to her herself and then continued to type away furiously at her machine.

"You look like you haven't slept in days."

"I have... a little," she replied without looking up from her computer.

He continued to stare at her a while before suggesting that she take a break.

Finally, she looked up at him, furious. She was so cute when she was mad that he could not help but to smile.

"_Right_. And who is going to finish this if I take a break?" she said before forcing herself to continue working.

"Asami, you are overexerting yourself," he sternly replied. He hated seeing her like this and did not want to scold her, but he could not help it. She was obviously burnt out. "Take a break and come back to it later. You look horrible."

She was silent.

"You don't honestly believe that you can think straight right now do you?"

No response.

He sat in silence for a while, staring at her until she finally gave up.

She sighed, looking up from her laptop.

"What are you doing here, Yuzan?"

"Haven't seen you in a while... just wanted to check-up on you and make sure you didn't die of a caffeine overdose or something," he replied, half joking.

She smiled. She had to admit it was nice to see him although she was sort of purposely avoiding him after he said that he loved her the last time she spent the night at his place.

"Thank you for the flowers," she said, finally noticing the beautiful long stem roses on her table. Although, it was weird. It was not like Yuzan to bring her flowers and chocolate, or anything besides the sweets that he normally bought for himself but shared with her.

"Asami..."

"Yes?"

"Please, take a nap," he insisted.

She thought about it for a while and then relented. A nap was probably a good idea.

"I'll take a nap, but only if you nap with me," she playfully suggested.

Despite wanting to distance herself from Yuzan, Asami could not help but want to cuddle. Plus, as much as she hated to admit it, being near him made her feel at ease.

"Of course," he replied with the most sincere smile she had ever seen on him.

And for a second, she almost believed that he actually loved her.

That or she was so delirious from the lack of sleep that she could not logically override what her heart was telling her was true.

She crawled into bed, leaving some room for him to get in. He was obviously more than happy to nap with her. And, to her surprise, he did not try to do as he pleased. Instead, he simply held her as she cuddled up against him to sleep.

He waited until she was sound asleep before getting up and calling his cleaning lady to come to Asami's. About thirty-minutes later, she showed up and cleaned the entire flat. He paid her and then ordered some food and played video games alone as Asami continued to sleep.

About three hours later, she woke up and found Yuzan in her living room.

"How long have I been asleep?" she asked as she made herself a cup of coffee.

"About three hours."

She looked around her flat and then sat down on the couch next to Yuzan.

"Did you clean my flat?" she asked, confused. It was not like Yuzan to clean, period.

"Annie did."

"Annie? Your cleaning lady?"

"Yeah. Had to pay her a little extra to come over here but I think she did a good job, so it was worth it."

She was so happy that she instinctively reached over and kissed him.

"You're the best," she cheerfully said as she looked lovingly into his eyes.

He blushed, genuinely happy. He loved it when she looked at him like that and it rarely happened so he wanted to savor the moment.

"Are you blushing, Yuzan?!" she teased as she got up and walked back over to her laptop. "I'd spend more time with you, but I need to get back to work."

"I love you, Asami," he said before he could stop himself from saying it. He knew that it made her uncomfortable when he said that he loved her, but he could not help it. He wanted, more than anything, for her to know how he truly felt.

"Yuzan, I don't have time for your silly lies right now," she replied, brushing off his confession.

He groaned, burying himself in her couch, and pretended to not care. It was obvious that she did not believe a word that he said despite the flowers and chocolates he brought her.

_Perhaps_, he thought to himself, _Asami does not like flowers and chocolates. But if she doesn't like flowers and chocolates then what does she like?!_

He had no idea.

* * *

Hours later, Asami was still working.

Yuzan supposed that she was never going to finish.

"Hey, you want to go grab dinner?" he asked, remembering the dinner cruise they were supposed to go to with Haru.

"I would, but I need to finish this."

"Haru and Shizuku are going to the Thames Dinner Cruise," he continued. "I think it would be nice if we all went together."

"Oh?" Asami looked up from her laptop, surprised that Yuzan would suggest they go on a dinner cruise with Haru and Shizuku. _Is he asking me to go on a double-date with him? _she wondered but then immediately shook the thought from her head, reminding herself that Yuzan was not the type to go on dates.

"I already bought tickets," he added, holding up the tickets for her to see.

"Fine," she replied, pretending not to care. "Staring at the same code for too long is frustrating anyways."

"Sure..." Yuzan had no idea what she was talking about.

He waited in the living room as Asami went and took a shower. Then, she put on a black satin lace panel dress and some light makeup before going back outside to find a fitting pair of shoes to go with her outfit.

The scent of her lavender shampoo filled the air and Yuzan watched as she made her way across the living room to the closet by the front door.

She looked through her collection of shoes before choosing a pair of Christian Louboutin pumps.

Then, she threw on a light jacket and turned around to talk to Yuzan.

"Ready to go?" she asked with a smile.

He was ready to go, but she looked so pretty that he found himself at a loss for words.

"Yuzan?" She walked over to him to see if he was okay.

"You look really pretty," he admitted.

"You're blushing again," she noted and then grabbed his arm and dragged him downstairs.

They took a taxi to Yuzan's flat, and when they arrived they found Haru digging through Yuzan's closet.

"Hey Asami, do you mind if Shizuku borrows one of your dresses?" Haru asked as he heard them approaching.

"Can you get out of my closet?" Yuzan growled.

"What? I'm sure you have _something_ in here that Shizuku could wear."

Finally, Haru pulled out a simple dark blue sequenced dress.

"This one is nice," he said. "Do you mind?"

"It's not mine, so do whatever you want," Asami replied, annoyed.

"Oh." Haru shot Yuzan an innocent smile before going downstairs to give the dress to Shizuku.

"Sorry," Yuzan said after Haru was gone. "It must have been there from a while ago..."

"Whatever," she coldly replied. "Just get dressed so we can go."

Annoyed, she went downstairs to help Shizuku get ready before Andou-san drove the four of them over to Embankment Pier for the cruise.

After dinner, Yuzan and Asami went back to Asami's flat while Haru and Shizuku made their way home.

When they arrived, Asami went straight back to working.

Yuzan took a shower and then stayed up for a while, playing video games, before falling asleep on her couch.

* * *

The next morning, Yuzan woke up with Asami asleep in his arms.

It seemed she had decided to sleep on the couch with him rather than in her bed.

He wondered for a moment whether it was possible that she actually liked him as well. But then again, the couch was closer than her bed and she was obviously exhausted, so there was a logical explanation for her having chose the couch over the bed. And she was a logical person so it sort of made sense.

Although, he could not help but to wonder, or perhaps wish, that it was desire rather than logic that brought her into his arms.

A few minutes later, she stirred.

"Good morning, sweetheart," he said as she opened her eyes and looked up at him.

She frowned.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"You're acting strange."

"Oh."

It seemed Asami did not like the endearing Yuzan.

"Did you finish your project?" he asked, ignoring the pain in his heart.

"I did. I spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong with it and it was one missing character! Good thing you forced me to take a break yesterday or it may have taken another three, maybe four, hours to figure out."

"Programming sounds horrible," Yuzan noted, half-joking.

She laughed. "But the satisfaction of having created a masterpiece is well worth the frustrations I face along the way."

"Dork."

She smiled and then pressed herself against his chest. It was really nice to have finished her work and she was looking forward to spending some time with Yuzan.

"Does that mean that I can do what I want now?" he asked playfully.

She chuckled and then began to kiss his neck.

"I guess that's a 'yes.'"

They kissed for a while, until she stopped to ask whether something had happened to him. She had to admit that she liked the sweet Yuzan, but was skeptical about his motives. She knew the type of man he was and did not believe for a moment that she was any different from the rest of his girls.

"Yuzan?"

"Yes, sweetheart?" he replied.

"Ugh, can you stop calling me that?" The tenderness in his voice and the way he had been looking at her lately made her have butterflies in her stomach, and she could not stand it.

"Why?" he asked, confused.

She paused for a long time, thinking about a good explanation as to why she wanted him to stop but then decided that there was no way she could tell him the truth.

"Just because," she finally said.

"That's not a very good reason."

They were silent.

"Hey, how long is Haru in town?" she asked, attempting to change the subject.

"Don't change the subject on me," he replied, reading right through her.

She chuckled. She hated how he always seemed to be able to read right through her. Although, in a way, it was comforting.

"And what are you going to do about it?" she teased.

Playfully, he grabbed her and then rolled her over so that he was on top.

"Rawr," she said as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "This might be more of a reward than a punishment."

"Either way, I win."

"And winning is all that matters," she joked.

He laughed. "In the end, it is."

She was silent for a while. The thought of him winning her over scared her.

"Unless you loose it all in the process," she whispered as he gently undressed her.

He paused for a moment as he thought about what her words might mean. But then, shaking them from his head, he continued.

Afterwards, Asami took a shower before she went down to the farmer's market near her home to pick up some ingredients for lunch. Then, she went back upstairs to prepare their food.

She looked over at Yuzan, who was checking his email on her laptop, and sighed. There was something about him that was so endearing and sweet. But she knew that she could not let herself fall for him because if she did there would only be heartbreak. She knew he was not the type of guy to settle for any one girl and feared that she would end up _betrayed_.

Men like Yuzan were dangerous and they could not be trusted.

_I am having a good time, t__hat is all,_ she reminded herself.

She forced herself to suppress her feelings for him as she finished making their lunch.

_Eventually_, she told herself. _Eventually, I will find a way to push him out of my life._

If only he wasn't so sweet.

Then, maybe, it would be easier for her to let him go.


	16. Part 2 - Chapter 4 - Asami

The next day, Asami went over to Yuzan's for Udon Monday, a tradition they had started a few months after she moved to London.

Both Yuzan and Shizuku were still at work, so she found herself alone in Yuzan's flat with Haru. She made dinner for the four of them, but by the time it was ready to eat Haru was still the only one home.

He sat with her at the dinning room table as she assembled two bowls of noodles, one for Yuzan and one for Shizuku.

"This is delicious," Haru said, wolfing down his bowl of food.

"Thanks."

"Where did you learn to cook anyways?" he asked. He was sure that, growing up, Asami's family had someone who cooked for them.

"My roommate taught me in college," she replied.

"Oh."

They ate in silence for a while before Haru finally looked up at her and asked,

"Why are you still with him?"

Asami sighed. She knew Haru disapproved of her relationship with Yuzan and she was not interested in explaining herself to him.

"Haru, I don't want to talk about it."

He glared at her, annoyed, convinced that Yuzan had brainwashed her with his lies.

"He can't be trusted and you know that."

"Your brother is a good person," she objected.

Haru frowned. "You don't _really_ believe that, do you?"_  
_

She was silent.

It was obvious that Haru did not think very highly of his brother and Asami suddenly felt really bad for Yuzan. She knew how much Haru meant to him and wished that he would at least try to understand his brother, no matter how different they were.

"You really like him, don't you?" he asked after some time.

"I don't know," she replied, unconsciously playing with her food.

He chuckled. It was obvious, at least to Haru, that she _did_ like Yuzan. But he could not understand how someone as logical as Asami could fall for someone as spontaneous and selfish as his brother.

"But why Yuzan?" he asked himself out loud.

Assuming he was talking to her, she thought about it for a while. But she could not find the words to express to Haru why she was with his brother.

Although, in the deepest part of her heart, she knew it was because Yuzan out of all people understood her.

* * *

About seven months ago, Asami boarded a yacht with her 'best friend' Maki on the French Riviera for Yuzan's birthday. Having grown up in a society where status was everything, she had the misfortune of having a large number of 'friends,' Yuzan being one of them. Her father was one of Yuzan's father's closest friends and she was obligated to attend his birthday party every year since as long as she could remember.

As usual, the party was overly extravagant and riddled with his father's political agenda.

Asami played nice with her 'friends' for a while before making her way down to her room for the night. She had just gotten a new job at Rockstar Games and was more excited about starting work soon than she was about yet another yacht party surrounded by the fake friends she had grown up with.

"Hey Asami," Maki called out to her as she made her way down the stairs.

"What is it?" she asked, looking up at her 'friend.'

"Have you seen Yuzan?"

"No." She had not seen Yuzan all night and was a little confused as to why Maki was asking her, out of all people, whether she had seen him. She knew Maki had been sleeping with Yuzan for a while now and did not want anything to do with them.

She sighed. "Can you help me look for him?"

"Why? You look for him," Asami replied, annoyed.

"I tried, but I can't find him anywhere. He was around a few hours ago but he seems to have disappeared. Can you look downstairs for me?"

"Fine," she unhappily obliged. She supposed that, since she was going downstairs anyways, it would not be much of a bother to look around for Yuzan.

"Thanks, you're the best!" Maki cheerfully replied. "Oh, and if you find him, be a good friend and let him know that I'm looking for him, okay?"

She nodded in agreement and then continued her way down the stairs.

She headed toward her room, quickly glancing over at the common area as she passed by. In the corner of her eye, she could see that someone was sitting on the couch, alone. By the hair, she could tell that it was Yuzan.

"Yuzan," she called out to him, disinterested.

He looked up and saw that it was Asami.

"Oh, Asami. What do you want?" he asked. He knew that Asami was not the type of girl he could fool around with so he did not bother trying to flirt with her.

"Maki's looking for you."

"Okay." He acknowledged her statement but did not move from where he was sitting.

Having done what she was asked to do, Asami turned to leave. But something about Yuzan sitting alone, likely sulking, on his birthday did not sit right with her. So, she turned around and walked over to him.

"Are you okay?" she asked, forcing herself to care. She knew that most of her 'friends' were on anti-depressants so she feared that he might have forgotten to take his pills. That or he might have taken one too many.

"I'll be fine," he blankly replied as he stared at the coffee table in front of him.

She chuckled. "Have you had too many drinks tonight or did you forget to take your meds?"

He looked up at her with a smirk.

He did not understand why she always pretended like she was different from the rest of them.

Although, he had to admit, there _was_ something different about her. She was objectively really pretty but did not seem all too interested in guys, with the exception of Mark, his 'friend' who she had dated for over five years before breaking it off with him about a year ago. Since then, she had not dated anyone and Yuzan could not understand why. Perhaps she was still in love with Mark, although that was highly unlikely considering what happened.

"Very funny Asami," he said, shaking his thoughts from his head. "Is that what they taught you in the States?" he teased.

"No," she plainly replied. "I mostly learned how to write good, solid, code."

"Dork."

She smiled. "Thanks. I'd rather be a dork than stuck playing this stupid game like the rest of you," she said before she could stop herself from saying it.

She wasn't sure why she was saying such a thing to Yuzan, the epitome of what their society represented, but she felt like she might be able to somehow get through to him. He was obviously in some sort of pensive state and she thought that perhaps, if she pried a little, he might open up.

He did not reply.

Shrugging it off, she turned to leave.

But, before she could make it very far, he called out to her,

"Asami?"

"What?" she said, turning back around to face him. She was sort of tired of talking to him but, no matter how much she was convinced that she did not care about him, she could not bring herself to leave him all alone on his birthday.

"Have you ever felt like you are all alone even when you're surrounded by hundreds of people?" he asked, half in a daze.

His question surprised her.

She had, and has always, felt that way.

_Does Yuzan feel this way as well?_ she thought to herself. It was too odd to be true. Never in her life had she imagined that Yuzan could feel so alone.

"No," she lied. "That doesn't make any sense."

"You're lying," he replied. He was right of course, but she had no idea how he could have known.

"And what makes you think that you know me well enough to know _that_?" she asked, defensive.

"I've known you your entire life, Asami."

"Knowing someone's name and phone number is very different from actually knowing them," Asami replied, annoyed. She knew that, despite the fact that they had technically known each other their entire lives, they knew little to nothing about one another. And, from what little she _did_ know about Yuzan, she was not a fan.

"You're right, I suppose," he replied. "Although we both know that I am right as well."

She was silent.

There was no way she was going to pour her heart out to Yuzan out of all people.

"I've seen it in your eyes," he added after some time.

She glared at him, confused. Was he hitting on her? She was not sure. All she knew was that she did not want to be near him any longer._  
_

"I'm going to bed. Maki's upstairs if you need someone to _cheer you up_," she said before turning around and walking over to her room.

Then, she took a quick shower and got into her bed to sleep. But she could not fall asleep so she turned and stared out at the sea through the circular porthole window by her bed. It was dimly lit by the light of a waxing moon, giving the illusion of a calm, peaceful, world.

But she was smart enough to know that the world was neither calm nor peaceful.

A few minutes later, her door creaked opened.

Expecting Maki, or another one of her 'friends,' she turned to invite her in. She was used to her friends wanting to sleep next to her when they were together so a random visitor in the middle of the night was not uncommon. She supposed that it was because none of them wanted to be alone.

And she didn't either, so she did not really mind.

She looked up and was surprised to find that it was Yuzan. Instinctively, she sat up in her bed, prepared to fend him off.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"I don't want to be alone," he softly replied.

The sadness in his voice was undeniable. And for a second, she felt bad for him.

Nonetheless, he could not be trusted.

"I'm sure there are plenty of other people who would accept you into their beds. So why are you coming here, where you are not wanted?"

Her comment took him off guard. And he suddenly found himself attracted to her.

_Perhaps_, he thought to himself, _it is because, unlike most other women I know, Asami does not seem at all interested._

Shrugging it off, he smiled and then continued,

"You're silly. Can you just move over?"

"No," she replied, enraged. Although, she had to admit, his smile was quite charming. But, suppressing her feelings for him, she continued, "If you think I'm just going to sleep with you like everyone else, you've got me all wrong, asshole!"

She was so cute when she was mad that he could not help but to smile.

"Calm down, won't you. I don't want to have sex with you," he calmly replied. "Although, to be perfectly honest, I sort of do. But not right now. Right now, I just don't want to be alone, okay?"

"Well I do."

He hesitated but then guessed, "You're lying again."

She did not respond.

Instead, she moved over and made room for him.

"Fine. But don't touch me or I will bite you."

He chuckled as he got into the bed next to her. "That's kind of sexy."

"Don't even think about it," she curtly replied before turning her back towards him to sleep.

She ignored him for a while until he finally got a little too close and whispered into her ear,

"I'm thinking about it."

She could feel his breath on her neck and it made her tingle all over. Fighting her desire to turn around and bury herself in his chest, she elbowed him as hard as she could in the stomach instead.

"Ouch!" he grimaced in pain. "What was that for?"

"I told you not to think about it!"

He laughed and then rolled over onto his back and smiled. The scent of her lavender shampoo was enticing.

"You know what, Asami?"

"What, asshole?" she coldly replied.

"I think I like you."

She chuckled. "Well that's too bad for you, Yuzan, because this," she said, referring to any sort of relationship between her and Yuzan, "is never going to happen."

But he begged to differ. He knew women well enough to know that, eventually, she would cave.

What he did not anticipate, however, was that _he _would fall for _her_.

* * *

Haru stared at Asami in an odd way, waiting for her to snap out of her daydream.

But she did not.

"Asami," he said, pulling her from her thoughts. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she lied as she unconsciously continued to pick at her food. She could not believe that now, only seven months later, she was with Yuzan. She hated herself for it but she had to admit, he was really good in bed.

Plus, he brought her sweets, which was nice.


	17. Part 2 - Chapter 5 - Fishing Trip?

**Thanks Shizuka Ayasato for the feedback! There will definitely be more flashbacks in later chapters. :) Glad you are enjoying it!**

* * *

About half way through their meal, Yuzan came home and, happy to see his brother and Asami having dinner together, he quickly put his bag down and joined them at the table. It had been years since he and Haru had a home cooked meal together and it made him happier than he'd openly admit.

Asami scooped some soup into the bowl of Udon she set aside for Yuzan and then handed it to him.

"Thanks, sweetheart," he said with a smile. "I love Udon Mondays."

_I love that smile,_ she thought to herself before quickly pushing the thought out of her mind.

"Sure," she replied, pretending not to care.

Haru observed that both Yuzan and Asami seemed to be happier when they were together.

_Perhaps_, he thought to himself, _they do make a good couple._

"Is work still crazy?" Yuzan asked, hoping he'd get to spend more time with Asami this week than he did the week before.

"Nope. After committing that fix yesterday, my boss was so happy he actually gave me the rest of the week off."

"Seriously? In your industry, that's unheard of. You must be very good at what you do."

She chuckled. "No clue. I'm sure it's just because I love work so much that it sickens him to see me so happy."

"Dork," he teased before leaning over to give her a quick kiss.

She smiled, thinking about what she was going to do with her week off - shop, eat, hangout with Yuzan, and maybe code a little.

"We should take advantage of your time off and go on a trip," Yuzan suggested, imagining Asami in a bikini on a yacht.

"Yes, a fishing trip!" Haru added, excited.

Asami laughed. "A trip sounds nice but I don't know about the fishing part..."

"Well," Yuzan said, "we can go somewhere that has fishing _and_ other things."

Asami smiled. "Other things would be nice."

"How about the Greek Islands?" Yuzan suggested, remembering the article he read in _Women's Weekly_.

"Shizuku said 'no' to that remember?" Haru shot down Yuzan's suggestion before Asami could even reply. "And I'm not going anywhere without Shizuku."

Asami rolled her eyes. "You are so attached. It's cute, but kind of disturbing at the same time."

"When you love someone, all you want to do is be with them," Haru replied, suddenly lost in a day dream. "Fishing or not fishing."

Asami looked over at Haru in disgust.

"I don't know how Shizuku does it," Asami playfully noted. "You are so odd."

"I don't know how _you_ like Yuzan," Haru replied, snapping out of his daydream. "He's the odd one."

"He's not odd," she objected. "Plus, I never said that I like Yuzan."

"If you don't like him, then why do you spend so much time with him?" Haru asked.

"Haru, I don't-" she started but was promptly interrupted by Yuzan,

"Hey, can you two stop talking about me already?" he lightly interjected.

Surprised, they both looked over at him innocently. Clearly, they had forgotten that he was there.

"Thanks. Now, back to the point, where should we go?" Yuzan continued.

"French Rivera?" Haru suggested. "That's closer than Greece."

"We were just there," Asami replied. "Let's go somewhere different."

They thought about it for a while before Asami suggested they go to Zanzibar.

"Zanzibar? As in East Africa Zanzibar?" Yuzan clarified.

"Yeah. I read this article about it. There's this cute little stone town, fun markets, good food, beach resorts; pretty much everything I'd want in a get-away."

"Yes!" Haru exclaimed, forgetting that Shizuku had to go somewhere nearby. "There is a game fishing lodge there and animals endemic to Zanzibar that cannot be found anywhere else in the world; everything _I'd_ want in a get-away!"

"I'd rather not stay at some fishing lodge," Yuzan objected. "Although we can rent a boat and go fishing if you'd like."

Asami laughed. "I second that."

"Works for me!" Haru was so happy that he could hardly contain himself.

He imagined Shizuku and him on a fishing boat together in Zanzibar but then suddenly remembered that Shizuku probably could not go to East Africa.

"But Shizuku..."

The three thought about it for a while.

"I've got an idea," Asami said after some time.

"What is it?"

"Haru, when Shizuku gets home tonight, can you sneak into her laptop and figure out what projects she's working on and who her VP and MD are? Then, I can see if I can get her sent to Zanzibar tomorrow."

"Are you sure that's going to work?" he asked, skeptical. As much as he wanted to go fishing with Shizuku, he knew how much her work meant to her and did not want to do anything that could get her into trouble.

"Yeah. We'll just move her to a 'special project.'"

"How?" Haru was starting to wonder if Asami was thinking about writing some sort of elaborate program to hack into Shizuku's company's systems and rework her tasks.

"Don't worry about it," she replied. "Just figure out what team she's on for me, okay?"

"Fine."

The plan was set. They cleared the table, save for the bowl Asami set aside for Shizuku and Asami and Yuzan went up to his room while Haru waited in the living room for Shizuku.

That night, Shizuku came home around 11:30PM and found Haru asleep on the couch. She quickly ate her dinner and then washed the dishes before taking a shower and waking Haru up to go and sleep in the room.

"Oh, you're home," he said sleepily.

"Yeah."

"How was work?" he asked as he got up and followed her into their room.

"Tiring."

"Oh."

He kissed her goodnight and then wrapped her up in the blankets before pretending to go to sleep beside her. When she was finally asleep, he opened her laptop and did as Asami had asked.

* * *

The next day, a few hours into the workday, Shizuku was called into her VP's office.

"Shizuku, Jake has requested your assistance on a special project."

_Jake?_ Shizuku thought to herself, _That's odd_. Jake was her MD, who she did not realize knew her name.

"Okay," she respectfully replied.

"It should only take a few days, so you'll be back with the team on Monday. Please go to his office after lunch to see what he needs."

_A few days?_ She wondered what kind of special project this could be, but she did not dare to ask.

She nodded in agreement and then quickly made her way out of his office.

After lunch, she went directly to Jake's office as instructed.

"Hi, you must be Shizuku," Jake said when she entered the office. "A friend of mine asked if it would possible to get our best Japanese-speaking Analyst to go on a brief client trip to Zanzibar. I'm not sure why she insisted on sending an Analyst out of all people, but here's your plane ticket. Someone will be there to pick you up when you arrive."

She looked down at the ticket in her hand and then back up at Jake, confused. "Zanzibar?"

"Yeah. Your flight leaves in about three hours so you better hurry," he said, shooing her out of his office.

"Okay," she complied. "I will check-in when I land."

"Please do."

She called Haru as she made her way home to pack her bags, but he did not answer so she left a voice mail informing him that she was being sent away for work.

After a nine hour flight, she arrived at Abeid Amani Karume International Airport in Zanzibar. As promised, a driver was there to pick her up and take her to her hotel.

"You will be staying at Essque Zalu," the driver informed her before handing her a business card for her hotel. "If you get lost or anything, just give any cab driver this card and he will be able to get you home."

"Thanks," Shizuku said, slightly bewildered by her surroundings.

The island was unlike anywhere Shizuku had been before. As they drove through the town, she observed the men and women making their way through the narrow, sandy, streets. Beautifully decorated doorways adored the otherwise rather plain stone buildings that lined the alleyways and street vendors, only feet from where she sat, sold everything from t-shirts and jewlery to spices, fruit, soaps, fried chicken, and paintings.

She wondered what was going on but figured that she would find out soon enough.

After passing through the town, the driver continued up a road, which sometimes ran along the beach, for about an hour before they arrived at her hotel. Along the way, there was very little to see. There was an occasional cow or two and a police check point but, besides that, it was mostly trees, dried grass, beach, and the ocean.

She thanked the driver and then went to front desk to check-in, handing her passport to the receptionist who welcomed her with a glass of freshly squeezed papaya juice.

She looked through the papers behind the counter and then picked up a key and led Shizuku through a beautiful modern lobby to a villa on the beach.

"Please let us know if there's anything you need," she said before handing Shizuku the key.

"Thanks."

Shizuku had no idea what was going on and was a little confused by the room that she was given. She stepped inside and found one of the most beautiful villas she had ever seen. It included a huge kitchen, a living room area with views of the ocean, three bedrooms, and a private outdoor pool and patio area overlooking the crisp turquoise water below. Why she needed so much space for herself, she did not know.

Quickly, she sat down at the dining room table, unpacked her laptop, and checked-in to work.

_Please check back in when you return_, was all that her MD said to her in reply.

His response confused her even more. What was she doing in a resort in Zanzibar and why did Jake not assign her a ton work as she expected?

Things were not adding up.

Nervously, she shot up in her chair when she heard the front door of the villa creak open.

"Hello?" she politely said as she turned to see who was there.

It was Yuzan and Asami.

"Yuzan!" she exclaimed, enraged. "You've got a lot of explaining to do!"

"Shizuku," Yuzan calmly replied with a smile that annoyed her to no end. "Please don't be angry. We knew there was no way you would have come otherwise, and Haru refused to come without you, so we did what we had to do."

As usual, he made it seem like he only did what was best for everyone.

"And how am I supposed to explain this to people when I get back to work?" Shizuku asked.

"You don't have to," Asami replied.

"What do you mean? I'm pretty sure they will be demanding some sort of client report."

"Nope." Asami seemed so sure of it that Shizuku sort of believed her.

But, either way, they could not be trusted.

"Look, it would be really nice if you just stopped messing with my life," Shizuku finally said.

"Shizuku, don't worry about it. No one will ask you a thing. And when you get back, you will simply go right back to working your wonderful 100 hour weeks," Yuzan insisted.

She frowned. "No wonder Haru doesn't want anything to do with you."

"Haru seems to be having a good time on the boat with Natsume and Sasayan," Yuzan noted, looking out into the ocean.

"Natsume and Sasayan?" Shizuku followed Yuzan's gaze to a small sailboat slowing making its way toward the shore.

"Yeah. And I'm sure they can't wait to see you."

Shizuku looked back at Yuzan, annoyed. She could not believe that he had somehow convinced her work to send her away for what was now obviously a vacation.

_Although_, she thought to herself, _it is really nice here._

"Go on now. We would rather be alone," Yuzan said, shooing Shizuku away.

Finally, she relented and, after setting her things down in her room and changing, she went down to the beach and joined her friends on the boat.


	18. Part 2 - Chapter 6 - Natsume and Asami

"Jackfruit?" Asami offered as she picked at the fruit they purchased in town that morning. It was stickier than she'd like but it tasted good so she felt it was worth the effort of extracting the little pods of fruit from its strange exterior.

"Sure."

They sat at the table and ate their fruit before deciding to get into the pool for a swim.

"Wow, I love it here," Yuzan noted mostly to himself as he admired Asami in her turquoise halter bikini.

"Hentai-san," she teased.

He smiled and then gently kissed her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Asami-"

"Don't say it, Yuzan," she cut him off before he could tell her that he loved her again. She could see it in his eyes, and it frightened her.

"Okay." He sat back and rested his head against the side of the pool, still holding her in his arms. He thought about her for a while and then concluded, "It must be nice to be with one person for a long time."

Confused, she looked up at him and teased, "Are _you_ thinking about settling down, Yuzan?"

He chuckled. "Maybe," he half admitted.

She smiled and then, not believing a word he said, playfully pressed her body up against his.

"_Sure_," she sarcastically replied. "Me too."

Too distracted to be hurt by the sarcasm of her response, he grabbed her and noted,

"If you keep that up, I'm going rape you."

"Geez, aren't you the sweet talker," she sarcastically replied. "I sure hope you don't talk to all your girlfriends like that."

He laughed and then, realizing what he just said, blushed.

"You're blushing again," she teased.

"There's just you," he said after some time, referring back to her comment about his other girlfriends.

The seriousness in his voice threw her off guard. She was not used to the serious or the sweet Yuzan, and he had been a lot of both lately.

_Does he really like me?_ she thought to herself. Surely, it could not be true. She supposed it was just part of some grand plan he had to make her fall in love with him. But she could not understand how her falling in love with him would benefit him in any way.

Confused, she wondered if he could read right through her and if he could tell that he was driving her insane.

_Probably_, she concluded. _Although, considering his odd behavior, probably not._

"What's gotten into you lately?" she asked after finally processing her thoughts.

"What are you talking about?" he replied, nervously avoiding her question.

"You're acting really strange."

"I'm not."

He laughed it off and then suggested they go and grab some ice cream by the bar.

Deciding that it would probably be best for her to just leave it alone, she agreed.

* * *

After enjoying their ice cream, Yuzan and Asami joined Haru and his friends on the boat down by the beach.

"Have you caught anything yet?" Yuzan asked after helping Asami onto the boat.

"Haru caught three or four tuna," Sasayan replied. "None yet for me."

"I love it here!" Haru exclaimed, hugging his fish.

"Ugh." Yuzan did not understand why Haru had to hug his fish. _Why not just put them in a cooler like everyone else?_

"I think I'm starting to feel sick," Natsume said as she curled up in a corner on the boat.

"Oh, do you get seasick?" Asami asked, concerned.

"Yeah..." She threw herself against the side of the boat and tried to puke, but nothing came up.

"We should probably get you back to the hotel," Sasayan suggested, rubbing her back. As much as he wanted to stay and continue to fish with Haru, he did not want Natsume to be sick.

"I'll take her back," Asami suggested. "I'm not much into fishing anyways."

"Are you sure?" Sasayan asked.

"Yeah. Don't worry, I'm not going to sell your girlfriend or anything," she joked.

He let out a nervous laugh, unsure of whether he could trust Asami to look after Natsume.

"I'll go with them," Shizuku said, sensing the hesitation in Sasayan's voice.

Relieved, Sasayan agreed.

The two girls helped Natsume back up to the villa and onto the couch. Asami fed her a bottle of Ginger Ale and then called the front desk for some in-room spa services. About thirty minutes later, the masseuses came to the room and set up three tables for the girls.

"No thank you," Shizuku said as Asami tried to pry the book out of her hand.

"Come on, relax a little. I already booked the service for the next two hours."

"Two hours?!"

"Yeah, they were having a deal on the massage and facial package, so I bought three."

"Fine," Shizuku relented. "But I'll pay for it myself."

"Charged it to the room," Asami replied with a smile.

"Oh." Shizuku supposed that she could just add it to the rent check that she was going to write Yuzan as soon as she got paid.

The girls laid down and each had a 60-minute Swedish massage, followed by a facial.

Afterwards, they went outside to sit by the pool.

"Hey, you're that girl from the picture," Natsume said, finally feeling well enough to recognize Asami.

"What picture?"

"Oh, Yuzan showed me a picture of you last time he was in New York," she explained.

"Weird. Why would he do that?"

Natsume laughed. "Because he really likes you."

"_Please_," she replied, unconvinced. "Yuzan really likes a lot of girls."

"Hmm, I suppose." Natsume could see now why Yuzan said that Asami could be a bit cold. And, thinking it would be best for her not to get involved with Yuzan's relationships, she decided not to interfere. "I'm Natsume, by the way."

"Right. Haru's friend who lives in New York. Yuzan's told me about you."

"Really?" She was surprised that Yuzan talked about her. "What did he say about me?" she wondered.

"Just that you're a good friend and fun to shop with."

Natsume giggled. She supposed that that was pretty accurate. "Oh. Did he say anything else?" She wondered how much Yuzan had told Asami about what happened between them, although she was with Sasayan now and her friendship with Yuzan seemed to have gone back to normal.

Asami looked over at the girl, confused. "Not really. Why?"

"Just wondering."

Asami smiled. She supposed people generally liked to know what others said about them when they were not around.

"Besides showing you my picture, did Yuzan say anything else about _me?_" she asked in return.

"Just that he really likes you. He didn't really go into detail about it," Natsume replied. "You know how Yuzan is."

"Oh, and how is he?"

"He doesn't know how to interact with women."

Asami could not help but to laugh. It was a little hard for her to believe that Yuzan did not know how to interact with women.

"It seems he knows better than he'd like to put off," Asami suggested.

"No, I mean in a normal relationship kind of way. Sure he knows how to get women into his bed or whatever, but he doesn't know anything about how to properly treat a girl. I mean, all he's had as an example is his Dad, who we all know isn't a great role model."

Asami thought about it for a while. She supposed that this girl might have a point. Although her point was still the same as what she already knew about Yuzan - he was too much like his father to be trusted.

"Yeah," was all that she could say in reply.

"Anyways, I think he can be a really sweet boyfriend if he tried. Although you might have to be really patient with him, considering how far he needs to come."

"You're quite the optimist," Asami noted although she did not intend to wait around for Yuzan to change. "Either way, he's not my boyfriend so I suppose you are talking to the wrong girl."

Natsume looked over at Asami, surprised. She thought that Asami liked Yuzan, but then remembered that she did not know anything about Asami.

"Okay," she replied and then got into the pool to swim.

She supposed it was not her place to tell Asami to give Yuzan a chance, although she sort of wished that she would. She had never seen Yuzan actually like a girl enough to want to change before and felt that it was a huge loss for Asami to simply brush him off so easily. A part of her resented Asami for it, but then again she seemed nice enough otherwise.

She supposed that everyone had their reasons for being the way that they are and that, perhaps, Asami had reasons of her own.

It was difficult for her to understand though.

So, after a while, she decided to get out of the pool and try to talk to Asami again.

* * *

"You know, when I was in high school I had a crush on Micchan," Natsume admitted as she toweled off.

"Micchan?" Asami replied, confused. "You mean Yuzan's cousin Micchan?"

"Yeah."

Asami laughed. She could hardly believe it. "Really? Why?"

"I don't know. I guess I found him intriguing. Anyways, that's not the point."

"Oh?" Her eyebrows raised as she listened intently for what Natsume had to say. She found the girl a little strange but interesting nonetheless.

"Well I told him that I liked him and, naturally, he turned me down."

"I'm not surprised," she replied. "Micchan has a complicated past."

Natsume's eyes lit up momentarily when she suddenly realized that Asami probably knew more about Micchan, as well as Haru and Yuzan, than she could have ever imagined.

"Right... but that's not the point of the story either."

"Okay. What's the point then?" She did not understand what Natsume was trying to get at and was beginning to lose interest.

"That was the first time in my life that I was ever rejected. And, to be honest, rejection hurts a lot," Natsume continued.

"It does." Asami, as with anyone her age, knew of rejection.

"But I didn't let that stop me. I continued to believe in love and eventually was strong enough to love Sasayan."

"That's sweet. But it's not the same, Natsume."

Asami finally understood what Natsume's point was. It seemed that Natsume wanted to help her to overcome her supposed fear of rejection. But that was not what held her back from loving Yuzan.

"What I could potentially feel for Yuzan is much more dangerous than some childhood crush," she plainly added.

The distance between the two grew and Natsume looked down at the pool, disappointed. She thought that her story could help, but she was clearly mistaken. She supposed that Asami was right but she did not really understand what Asami was talking about so she was not sure.

"I'm sorry, senpai," Natsume said after some time.

"It's okay."

Asami presumed that Natsume did not know the pain of _betrayal_ and hoped that, for her sake, she never would. Betrayal hurt infinitely more than rejection and, having experienced both herself, Asami knew it first hand. And she could not risk being subjected to such an ordeal again for she knew that the true extent of a woman's capacity to love was frightening. Most men, on the other hand, were dogs.

She looked beyond the pool, at the sailboat in the distance, and knew that she could very easily become that person again - that person who would let a man like Yuzan do whatever he wanted, to the extent where she could lose it all.

_Everything_, she thought to herself. That was what she could potentially lose.

She thought about her relationship with Mark and how, by the time she brought herself to leave him, she felt like little more than an empty shell of a human being who had had everything she ever cherished and valued stripped from her by the one person she loved the most.

And she had almost fully convinced herself that it would be better to never love again than to risk being betrayed a second time.

_I have to be strong_, she told herself, _and, if I feel myself slipping into Yuzan's spell, I have to cut him off immediately._

And she was slipping, fast.


End file.
